NOAH's Everquest II Grouping Guide
Submitted By: Noah
Special Thanks to Rojick and MorbidlyCute of Guild Arkhein
(Death to hungry Ogre's!)
Introduction
As with all of my guides, FAQ's and Help documents, as a word to the wise for readers. I, like anyone else, am not infallible. Always take caution when putting anything to the test for the first time. MMORPG's do have a tendency to change without notice in almost any aspect. By continuing to read this document you are expressing your recognition and acceptance of our FORGIVENESS TERMS. Which means, you won't be upset with me or anyone I know, should anything you learn in this document turn out to be incorrect in any way. If you have any additions, comments, or constructive criticism for this help file, please feel free to contact me through the website forums.
Part I: Grouping Basic Information
A group is exactly what it sounds like. A coming together of players to better their odds of survival and enable them to be able to take more powerful creatures and hence make themselves accessible to better and more valuable loot. The person to invite someone into a group becomes the group leader by default. Leadership will change automatically when a leader leaves the group or the game. Leadership can be transferred by the current group leader manually as well. On your screen, you will see a blackened window, and within this window are an Exclamation and a Spyglass icon. Clicking the exclamation flags your character in-game as LFG (Looking For Group). The Spyglass icon, when clicked, brings up an option window for you to change default settings. Once you are in a group, the rest of this window will display the names and status bars of the other group members. You can target the other members simply by clicking their name in this window. To find a group you were invited to, click on the leader's name in your group window and simply look around you, their nametag will appear somewhere without you. I also recommend sending a /OOC message stating your level/class/race letting others know you are looking to group up. This tends to get the fastest result, but people will be able to see you on their /WHO list as LFG as well. However, even if you do not flag yourself as LFG you can fully expect to be blindly invited to join a group as well. This really is considered bad etiquette to blindly invite people to your group. The reason this is bad form is because it interrupts a player's game by causing a large invitation window to appear on their screen and the player must deal with this window. I'm sure you can see how that would quickly become annoying. You can pretty much count on being blindly invited to a group at least once per session. It is socially acceptable to send a friendly reminder to the offending player letting them know that most people consider this to be bad etiquette. If the recipient of the friendly advice becomes enraged or starts accosting you, then you can be glad because now you know for sure this is not someone you wanted to group with. Personally, I keep a slip of paper on my desk listing players NOT to group with. It takes an awful lot to get on my bad list however. I'm talking beyond just simply belonging to the Communist party too!
Part II: Responsible and Considerate Grouping Etiquette
1. Again, never invite a person who is not flagged LFG.
2. Send a message to an invited person immediately before or after an invitation telling them of the group's level range and Class makeup. (i.e. Lvl 11-14, Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, Rogue)
3. Use the Lottery method for splitting up loot. This is generally the expected and acknowledged method for most players. I recommend not joining a group that does not use the lottery method simply because, as much as I hate to admit it, I have run into a lot of players that are downright greedy when it comes to loot. Ask the group leader to switch to Lottery mode, and if they refuse simply make your goodbyes.
4. When leading a group, a lot of players will target you and put them into follow mode. This is not recommended by me, but people still do this to make getting where you are going less complicated and often allowing them to go AFK during the journey. This puts a lot of responsibility on the leader because, with this in mind, you need to consider your chosen path to your objective and be sure not to run at all close to agro mobs. I shudder every time I think of how many less than thoughtful leaders have lead the group too close to a band of red mob's and ended up spending the next half hour reviving, reorganizing and getting started again. Something like this can very often be the end of a group.
5. If you win a loot item in the lottery and someone in the group informs you that they could really use the item, it is in most players' minds only right that you should freely surrender this item to them, unless you can use the item yourself and plan to. Everyone wants to make money, but other player's will witness your generosity and consideration, and usually return the favor. I believe that all good deeds come back to you tenfold, and this is especially true in EQ2. When you help another player become a better player, this benefits everyone in your faction/group/guild. Ask any high level player about this and they will tell you the same thing. I have never asked someone I was grouped with to pay for an item we all fought for if they truly needed it and I could not use it. If it is a particularly powerful item (and I don't mean monetary value) that you can both use, try to work out some sort of a trade if it is that important to you. I am not suggesting that you surrender an item to someone else that you have been dying to find as well. For example, just last night, I was grouped with some people I had never been with before. The entire experience left a bad taste in my mouth; but the event that still haunts me about the whole experience was when a Treant dropped a staff better than the one I had and a fighter got it in the lottery. Now a fighter really has no need of a staff. So I said I could really use it. The person refused to give it up. Not really much I can say or do about it, because nothing is worth getting into some immature argument over an item. The person finally agreed to SELL me the staff for 20sp. This in itself is considered rude as hell. It is basically diminishing the considered worth of a fellow group member. By demanding payment for an item you all worked for, you are in effect saying that the person has not put as much effort into the group as you have. This is insulting and grossly uncalled for. Any player who does not agree with this concept basically has a terrible set of game ethic's and is a player I would have no use for what-so-ever. This person will definitely never be in another group with me, and you can be sure they wouldn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of ever getting into guild Arkhein if I have anything to say about.
6. Keep in mind, when dealing with your fellow group mates, that a lot of players are kids. Most people I run across seem to be good and mature players at any age, but you undoubtedly will run into immature people, and this is expressed in many ways by that person. The best things you can do for someone like that is give them sound advice. Some people get offended when you tell them they are not acting in a productive manner, but that type of person should generally be avoided. When enough people have expressed their concerns to a player, the player will generally change their outlook. Hell, a lot of the time they change their character altogether from shame.
7. When you find yourself with an exceptionally good group of players, add them to your friends list! Let them know you enjoyed the session, and want to do it again. Ask them to add you to their friends list. This is how we open up channels of sociability and create networks of the best players. Keep these people in mind when you are in a guild looking for members.
8. By the same token, if you find yourself with a terrible group of players, make a note of their names. Know who to avoid and not to avoid next time. Sometimes this is just due to inexperience, but sometimes it is due to anti-social behavior or just outright selfishness. I will give people the benefit of the doubt and a second chance in most cases. You have to be pretty far out there on the moron scale for me to write you off the first time we adventure together. If someone does though, I will go so far as to put them on my ignore list.
Part III: Grouping Technique's by Character Class
Fighter Class
You lot are, what we lovingly refer to as, the tanks. Your job(s) in the group are generally to pull* the mob's to the group and to engage them in melee combat so as to keep them off of the healers and other spell casters in the group. Pulling* can also be the job of any other class as well, but generally it is left up to the warrior types to do this. Now, here is your list of expected duties and technique's.
1. Announce to the other players about all pulls ahead of time, and make sure they are all ready, and know what is incoming.
2. Try to avoid switching targets in mid-combat as this can make the encounter take longer.
3. Pull mobs off of players that are being beaten down when possible without endangering the others.
4. Don't start a battle until everyone is ready and all power levels have been restored to full.
Mage Class
1. Concentrate your firepower on the same mobs as everyone else, this takes down the enemy faster.
2. Never move up to engage your opponents unless necessary, this lends you to having your spells interrupted which wastes time and effort and extends the time it takes to defeat the encounter. You can best serve your group by hanging back and doing what you do best, dealing out lots of damage. Also, you take less damage than other more rugged types of classes so you force the healers to use precious power which should be being used on the tanks and other melee types.
3. Don't assume you will have enough power and say you are ready until you have been restored to full.
Priest Class
1. Target the tank(s) not the monsters. This makes it much easier to heal your group as well as allowing you to automatically cast offensive spells on the same target that everyone else is attacking.
2. Don't waste your precious power! Don't cast a big healing spell on someone who has only taken a little damage. Hold off until they can really use it, and thereby making you a more worthwhile addition to the group.
3. If you are attacked by a wandering mob or whatever, do not run off, and do not take your eyes off the other group members if at all possible. Shout out that you are being attacked, and hopefully someone will have the where-with-all to pull the monster off of you.
4. If you have the ability for it, give your fellow group members the temporary power to rez you if needed. Priests do fall on occasion, and this can save a lot of time from having to rev and regroup. A split parry is always teetering on the brink of disbanding.
Scout Class
1. You have some very powerful sneak attack capabilities, but you have to be selective about using them in certain situations. For instance, you wouldn't want to sneak into a large group and backstab a mob, because you will be fallen upon by the entire group which can cause mass confusion and possibly the demise of your entire party. Always announce your intentions to the group!
2. A good tactic is to move a few feet in front of the tank that is pulling and hide. Let them pull the mob in, and you will already be hidden and facing the monster, then use your oh so devastating attack on it.
3. Remember that while you can be used as a tank in a lot of instances, you are also able to utilize a number of ranged weapons, and can also serve your group well by maintaining ranged attacks from a distance.
4. Keep in mind that you have the ability to pull/taunt as well. Sometimes the fighters need a break from pulling too!
Part IV: Grouping To Do List
1. Planning and communication is the key to a good grouping event.
2. Know well ahead of time where everyone is going to rev* to if the part should be killed in total or if you have no healers for rez'ing*.
3. Decide your strategy for each battle BEFORE the combat begins. This can make or break your chances of success with an encounter. The strategy you employ needs to vary according to several factors not limited to but including the size of your group, the make-up of your group, the size of the encounter and the make-up of the encounter. With these issues in mind, let me give you a sub-list of potential strategies to employ.
- - - - 1. If you have a small party of say less than 5 players, then the only players who should not move up to engage the enemy in melee are the healers, and even they should join in if there are only 2 or 3 group members. Remember, if the healer(s) die, there is no one left to heal or rez everyone else.
- - - - 2 If you have a large party of say 6 or more players, then only the scouts and fighters should engage the enemy in melee. Staying back from the fray gives all spell casters a greater success rate with their spells which essentially makes them able to do more efficient damage as well as more efficient healing.
- - - - 3. Generally speaking, when engaging an encounter I recommend taking out opponents in order of their importance to the enemy. This would be, from first to last, Healers, Spell casters, toughest mobs and weakest mobs. There are things to consider though before sticking to this as a carved in stone concept.
- - - - 4. If the enemy group is small, it is generally a good idea to tale out the heaviest hitters first, as they can deal out the most damage quickly, but you should always take out the healers first.
- - - - 5. If the enemy group is large, then I recommend taking out the weaker mobs before the big guys, and the reason for this is that in a large encounter it takes a long time to kill the heavy hitter(s) and all the while you are hacking away at them, the lesser mobs are freely whittling away at you. By taking out the smaller enemy first, you will, in the long run, decrease the amount of damage you suffer when you finally get to concentrate on the main mob.
- - - - 6. Again, the healers should almost always be the prime targets, because while you are standing their taking damage, your attacks are being basically negated by the enemy healers undoing your damage.
4. Know who the main tanks are, and target your groups tank(s) rather than the individual mobs. This will help to insure that everyone is on the same monster, which will take them out faster. If everyone attacks someone different it makes the encounter take longer, and increases the possibility of failure. Targeting a player instead of the monster(s) also enables you to cast friendly spells on them as well, which is why I recommend targeting the tank(s) of the group, as they take the most damage.
5. Watch the status bars of other group members, and be prepared to jump in and hell them when possible and necessary. If you see someone getting beat down, pull their monster off of them if possible. Remember that if a group member goes down, you share in their XP debt.
6. Be wary of the CALL FOR HELP key! I, myself, have accidentally hit this during a big encounter and basically stole away mine and everyone else's XP and loot unintentionally. This embarrassed me so bad I removed the hotkey altogether from my hot bar.
7. Be prepared and willing to relinquish group leadership to someone who knows more about the area of the best tactics for the encounters you are going after.
8. Always give as much notice as possible when you are leaving a group. This lets them know it is coming and gives them the opportunity to replace you even before you have left. You may have gotten what you needed or wanted from a group, but when people start dropping off it open up the possibility of others deciding to drop out as well. By being considerate like this, you can help insure that the other group members are able to continue on as a viable group after you have left.
9. NEVER open chests immediately following a battle and without warning the others. There are some chests out there with death traps on them that can deal damage into the thousands. There is nothing worst than surviving a difficult encounter and then getting wiped out because some overzealous newb threw open a chest without warning.
Part V: Grouping NOT To Do List
1. Never RUN from a fight while in a group unless the leader shouts to retreat or pullback. The reason for this is that when you run, you make the mob's chase you. This makes it more difficult for all the other group members to continue the battle. Let the healers do their job and keep you alive. If you do fall in battle, the healers can hopefully just resurrect your body on the spot. Running should only be considered when everyone runs and only as a very last resort.
2. Always stay with the group leader. Groups that stray off generally tend not to survive in the long run.
3. As leader, don't just charge around aimlessly. Nothing is more annoying then a group leader who appears to have no idea where they are going.
4. Do not stand around for too long waiting for players to arrive with your group. Get to where you were going, or look for mobs in the area you can take on with what you have. Many groups end up disbanding because players get bored very quickly.
5. Do not be greedy with the loot, if you win a lottery item that you can not use, ask if anyone else can actually make use of the item right then and there, and if they can, offer it to them at no cost. This is ALWAYS the way it should be. Everyone is fighting the same encounter and has as much right to an item as you do. If they want it just to sell, then by all means keep it for yourself.
6. Never quit a group immediately following a bad encounter. If everyone fell to a spot of bad luck or whatever the case may be, it is most responsible and considerate to stick together at least until everyone gets their shard back, especially when it is sitting in a dangerous area.
7. Never leave a group member unprotected should they happen to go link dead. When you agreed to join a group, you agreed to stand by these men and women through any and all trials and tribulations. You must protect them until their character disappears from the world. Leaving a link dead player to die is the equivalent of killing them yourself.
8. Do not quit a group simply because someone else did, even if it was a key member of the group. Give it a few minutes, and a replacement can usually be found without too much trouble. Especially when you have found a good group, as they can be hard to find.
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