Grouper - Server-Wide Group Finder for WoW Classic Era

Tired of spamming trade chat looking for a group? Grouper is a powerful server-wide group finder addon for World of Warcraft Classic Era (and TBC Classic) that lets players browse, create, and join groups for dungeons, raids, quests, PvP, and more — all from a clean, tabbed UI with no chat spam required.

The Problem

WoW Classic's built-in LFG tools are limited: LookingForGroup channel is text-only chaos, trade chat clogs quickly, and there's no structured way to advertise roles, level ranges, or specific dungeons you're running. When you finally find a group the information is already stale.

Meanwhile raid leaders have it worse — tracking 20-40 recruits across whispers, manually counting class slots, and reposting announcements every few minutes is tedious busywork that takes focus away from actually playing.

The Solution

Grouper uses a dedicated addon communication channel shared across all Grouper users on your realm. Group listings are broadcast automatically, updated in real time when members join or leave, and displayed in a structured UI with rich filtering — so players see only the groups relevant to them, and leaders spend less time managing chat.

Core Features

Server-Wide Group Discovery

• Browse all active Grouper groups across your entire realm in one place, regardless of what zone you're in
• Groups are sorted by recency and auto-expire when stale — no dead listings cluttering the view
• Listings update live as leaders sync changes without any manual refresh needed

Smart Filtering

• Level range filters — set a min/max level band; groups outside your range are hidden automatically
• Activity type checkboxes — filter to Dungeons, Raids, Quests, PvP, or Other independently
• Conditional sub-filters — when Dungeon is checked, a "Filter by Dungeon" dropdown appears; when Raid is checked, a "Filter by Raid" dropdown; when PvP is checked, a "Filter by Battleground" dropdown — all three can coexist
• Role filter — show only groups that still need a Tank, Healer, or DPS
• TBC-exclusive content (Eye of the Storm, TBC raids) is version-gated and only appears on TBC clients

Dungeon Group Management

• Multi-dungeon selection — list multiple dungeons in a single group posting
• Role slot tracking — Tank, Healer, and DPS slots displayed with current fill status
• Auto-join system — players can request to join via whisper handshake; the leader receives a popup to accept, assign a role, and confirm level
• Automatic role enforcement — a second tank or second healer cannot auto-join a slot that is already full
• Guild restriction — mark a group as guild-only; only members of the specified guild will see it in Browse results

Raid Recruitment Tracking

• Dedicated raid group type with configurable raid size (10, 20, 25, 40, etc.)
• Role quota tracking — set targets for Tanks, Healers, and DPS; counts decrement automatically as members join
• Class slot tracking — specify how many of each class you need (e.g. "2 Priests, 1 Warlock") with live fill counts
• Loot system field — advertise your loot method (Master Looter, DKP, EPGP, Loot Council, Soft Reserve, /roll, Free for All)
• Clear status field — advertise your raid's progression status (Fresh, Partially Cleared, Farm Mode, Specific Bosses)
• Reserved items field and voice info field for Discord/Vent details

Announcement Integration

• Announce button posts your group to /LookingForGroup channel with size, roles needed, and class needs formatted automatically
• Per-channel announcement preferences — choose which channels (LFG, Guild, GreenWall confederation) receive announcements
• GreenWall confederation support — announce to your cross-guild confederation channel
• Quest link reconstitution — quest group postings include a clickable quest link in the announcement
• Rate-limited to prevent accidental spam (3-second cooldown per announce)

Group Management Controls

• Sync — broadcasts your current group state to all Grouper users; updates member counts from the live WoW party/raid roster
• Edit — modify group title, type, dungeons, roles, or description without disbanding
• Assign Roles — reassign Tank/Healer/DPS roles to any group member via popup
• Transfer Leadership — hand group ownership to another member with a dedicated popup showing only leader selection — no role reassignment clutter
• Disband — cleanly removes the Grouper listing without disbanding the underlying WoW party/raid

UI & Customization

• Tabbed interface: Search Filters, Search Results, Create Group, My Groups, Options
• Minimap button with group count tooltip; left-click opens addon, right-click opens config
• TitanPanel integration — displays active group count in your TitanPanel bar
• Configurable border and background colors
• Font selection
• Window position and size persist across sessions and /reload
• ESC key closes the window cleanly via UISpecialFrames

Group Types

• Dungeon — 5-man instance groups with role slots (Tank/Healer/DPS), multi-dungeon selection, level range, and auto-join support
• Raid — large-group recruitment with role quotas, class tracking, loot system, and clear status fields
• Quest — questing groups with quest link integration in channel announcements
• PvP — battleground groups with battleground selection (Classic Era and TBC battlegrounds supported)
• Other — free-form groups for world events, role-play, or anything else

How It Works

Communication System

Grouper uses AceComm-3.0 over a custom addon channel (Grouper) to broadcast group state across all users on the realm. The communication flow is:

1. On load — Grouper broadcasts a REQUEST_DATA to populate the local cache from any active leaders
2. On group create / sync — the leader broadcasts a GROUP_UPDATE message containing title, type, size, roles, members, allowed guilds, and a timestamp
3. On member leave / disband — a remove notification is broadcast so all clients drop the stale listing immediately
4. Auto-search — Grouper periodically re-requests data to catch leaders who joined after the initial load

Security & Taint Safety

• All SendChatMessage calls pass through an IsSecureContext() guard combining InCombatLockdown() and issecure() — preventing ADDON_ACTION_BLOCKED errors from tainted execution contexts
• Auto-join invite calls use a separate InCombatLockdown()-only check because InviteUnit does not route through the deprecated chat API and does not require the full taint guard
• Cross-faction filtering is automatic — Horde players never see Alliance groups and vice versa

Slash Commands

• /grouper show — Open the Grouper main window
• /grouper hide — Close the Grouper main window
• /groupercd — Print dungeon cache contents to chat (debug)
• /groupercgm — Print group member cache contents to chat (debug)
• /grouper debug on|off — Enable or disable verbose debug output

Requirements

• Ace3 (AceAddon-3.0, AceComm-3.0, AceDB-3.0, AceGUI-3.0, AceTimer-3.0, AceConsole-3.0)
• VersionCheck-1.0
• WoW Classic Era (Interface 11507–11508)
• TBC Classic (Interface 20505)
• WotLK Classic (Interface 30405) and Titan Reforged (Interface 38000)
• Cataclysm Classic (Interface 40402)
• Mists of Pandaria Classic (Interface 50502–50503)
• Retail / The War Within (Interface 110207+)

Recent Updates

v0.7.3 (Latest Release — 2026-05-25)

• fix: No more Lua error spam when running dungeons on retail — Grouper now safely skips the protected system messages Blizzard's retail client marks as off-limits to addons

v0.7.2 (2026-04-13)

• fix: Minimap right-click now opens ESC > Interface > AddOns > Grouper instead of a standalone floating config window (CFG-001)
• fix: SetupOptions() deferred via C_Timer.After could leave options unregistered if called before the frame fired — now runs synchronously in OnInitialize
• fix: InterfaceOptionsFrame_OpenToCategory removed in Classic Era 1.15+ (returns nil) — replaced with Settings.OpenToCategory
• fix: Category ID stored from AceConfigDialog:AddToBlizOptions return value and used directly in Settings.OpenToCategory — string name lookup was unreliable on some builds

v0.7.0 (2026-04-03)

• feat: Multi-client support — Grouper now runs on Classic Era, TBC Classic, WotLK Classic, Titan Reforged, Cataclysm Classic, Mists of Pandaria Classic, and Retail
• feat: Grouper.IsExpansionAllowed(expansion) — per-client allowlist gates instance data to the correct expansion set; Titan Reforged (TOC 38000) detected via interface range check
• feat: Data/InstanceData.lua expanded from 53 to 199 entries — full dungeon, raid, and battleground coverage through The War Within
• feat: Expansion filter dropdown in the Create form — filters the instance picker to a single expansion; only expansions available on the running client appear in the list
• fix: Level ranges in the Create form and submitted group data clamped to GetMaxPlayerLevel() — prevents historical expansion levels from exceeding the active server cap
• fix: GameTooltip:IsOwned(self) calls on FontString widget labels replaced with unconditional GameTooltip:Hide() — eliminates "Wrong object type for function" crashes across GrouperCreate, GrouperBrowse, and GrouperResults (12 sites fixed)
• chore: TOC audit — MoP interface numbers (50502, 50503) added; Titan Reforged (38000) treated as WotLK-era client

v0.6.4 (2026-04-03)

• fix: Transfer Leadership popup no longer renders role assignment UI — shows only the new-leader dropdown and Transfer/Cancel buttons; confirm callback simplified to leadership transfer only (UI-006)
• fix: GameTooltip OnLeave handlers across all tabs now guard with IsOwned(self) before hiding — eliminates tooltip bleedover into other addons (UI-007)
• fix: DPS members no longer placed in Tank/Healer-exclusive role slots in My Groups tab — slot assignment now uses explicit indices matching Browse tab behavior (MANAGE-001)

v0.6.3 (2026-04-03)

• fix: Transfer Leadership popup now shows only leader-selection controls — role/level assignment UI no longer rendered in this flow (UI-006)
• fix: All GameTooltip OnLeave handlers now guard with IsOwned(self) before hiding, eliminating tooltip bleedover into other addons (UI-007)
• fix: DPS members no longer placed in Tank/Healer-exclusive role slots in My Groups tab — explicit slot assignment now matches Browse tab behavior (MANAGE-001)
• fix: Code review round 3 — resolved B-13 through UX-05 findings
• fix: Code review round 2 — resolved B-10 through A-03 findings
• refactor: All raw db.profile.debug.enabled reads replaced with IsDebugEnabled() helper

Bug Reports & Feature Requests

Found a bug or have a suggestion?

If you have any questions, comments, or anything else, please feel free to reach out on Discord!

Credits

Developed by:

• Pimptasty - Author

Special Thanks:

• The Old Gods guild community for real-world testing and feedback
• Ace3 library maintainers for the excellent addon framework
• WoW Classic community for bug reports, suggestions, and support

License

Grouper is open-source software. See the LICENSE file for details.