My first groups...initial thoughtsFollow

Spent all day playing in my first groups (lvl16 predator) and noticed how completely unorganised they are. The 2 things I notice is that either: 1)someone runs off to fight something cause they're bored or they need it for a quest 2) We camp right in the middle of mob and die. I'm very much used to FFXI groups

Are these are early party level learning experiences or are this is what to be expected? I did have fun, but with my spirit shard locked in Firemyst (for 7 hours) and shared debt, I am in the red bigtime

Edited, Fri Dec 31 00:59:59 2004 by Bhobster

also if you right click the firemist door it gives your shard to you.

Whoa thats good to know! thanks for the tip :)

First, yes it's hard to get a good group going at any level cause you really ahve no idea what type of player ur going to invite until ur first battle.

If I'm leader of the group, I'll go through the following strategy discussion before starting.

1) Assign main tank
2) Assign main healer (if more than one)
3) HAve one person call the mob and be the "leader"
ie. If I'm leader I like to do it cause I know I won't mess it up much, if at all.
4) Set way to call mob, and pull. ie. In my groups, I hail what I want pulled... go to spot I want it pulled to, and say, pull to here. Now there are hopefully some givens but doesn't hurt to explain, that only the tank goes and grabs the mob, and everyone else stays behind where I am standing, waiting for the pulled mob.
At time I will change this up a bit... normally once an aggro is pulled, the group will move to where or really close to the spot where the aggro was originally standing, cause you just killed the pop, rare will something pop on u again so quickly. However there are times that isn't the best. For example, in Thundering Steppes, fighting through giant valley, near T$ and over bridge.. there is a group of 4 aggro giants, no up arrows... but u dont want to pull them to where last aggro was, you want to send tank in, hitting them right where they stand... if you ever go there, you'll understand why.

5) Tank pulls to where I am standing, even a bit further since I am ranger and need to end up behind the enemy.
6) Everyone comes in and starts hammering away, avoiding any other aggros, and watching each other's backs for pops.
7) Once done, rinse, repeat.

After a short while all you have to do is say pull to here, and the tank will know what u want pulled (which is usually open ended and whatever is easiest or safest for him to pull) and everyone will get the hang of it.

As far as HO's go, make a macro or make sure whoever is going to be main trigger (scout types best at trigger, yields greatest variey of possiblities) and say "HO starting in 3 seconds" for example. Everyone shoulds top hitting specials, and then start triggering ho. Now I've rarely gotten this to actally work in a new group cause most people just don't get the value of ho's. Which is fine cause in most cases, you don't NEED them, but using them prevents overusing your mana, maximizing your xp in shorter time spurts. The best way to get HO's to actually make an impact is to work with the same or alot of the same people all the time and study (yes, study) the different possibliites and combo's of HO's, cause there's a ton of different possiblites, and some combos yield the best ho's. I have yet to take this step cause I hate studying but I'm sure it'd come in useful if I eventually did. Plus, I rarely am in the same group on a day to day basis.

Of course, there's always at least one who says, why so much planning, ur power hungry, blah blah so I try to start out saying, I'm not trying to be a **** but if we use this strategy there is a very very low chance we will ever die, removing the debt factor. Stick to it and well be fine. Still, some will complain, depending on how patient you are, keep em and let them see for themselves or boot them. One bad apple can spoil the bunch.

With this strategy I rarely die, probably a 100-200 :1 kill to death ratio but usually I or someone will die because they accidentally use AOE spell or accidentally targeted wrong mob. Which is fine, cause overall the team does awesome. For all you guys who are **** about debt, one death from someone else in your group can be taken care of in less than five minutes. Leave the person alone and dont yell or ***** at them. Be nice. :P


Disclaimer: This is a great way that I get my groups to work and work well. This is not the only way to do it. There are many ways. The key is to remain consistent, don't get overagressive, be patient, and pull one at a time if they are yellow+. This system may not work for you cause it's too "planned" or "repetitive" or "unexciting" (which I don't think so but some do). That's fine cause it's not kamkiaze style in any way whatsoever, cause I don't like dying alot and building debt. It's just a way to minimize deaths and blow through mobs once you get it going right.

I just don't group anymore because many players try to take GROUP mobs that are beyond their level. I did have a blast in one group where we were taking on blue con group mobs but then the others wanted to take a group of yellows and of course we wiped. The group disolved and 3 members ******* about experience debt yet one of them was the one that pulled the damn things. LOL

You stated that you were used to the groups in FFXI, do you not remeber how dreadful the groups were in Valkurm Dunes. This was noob heaven much like Antonica is to EQ2. IMHO groups in FFXI really didnt become all that organized until lvl 30 or so and even those werent that great unless you had one guy in the group that had a higher lvl job that was barking orders. You stated you were only lvl 16 and honestly I felt the same way, i was used to groups where everyone had a lot of experience and knew exactly what they were doing. Currently I am only a lvl 24 Ranger but i have noticed a huge difference in the quality of groups so far (even though every once in a while you get that exception group).

Recently i got into an awesome guild that the vast majority of the guild is only a few lvls difference from each other and one of the requirements to get into this guild is to have a headset with a Voice over software called Teamspeak 2. If anyone is in a smaller guild i reccomend you try this software, its amazing what a group can do when you are talking directly with your group members.

Anyways as far as the quality of groups in EQ2 I can imagine that they will get better and better as the game progresses on and you acheive higher levels, it comes down to simple gaming experience and this will be more prevelant when people realize the defining points of their job.

Unless we were questing something I'd leave a group too scared to try anything higher than blue. I've just logged out (server down thank you SoE ) from a group of 4 taking groups of 3 yellows with very little risk. Yellow^ in pairs and Yellow^^ as well.

There does seem to be a lot of caution for a game where the consequences of dying are virtually nil. Not that I'm looking to die but I'm rather more in the "let's see if we can take it" school than the "We'ed better not someone might die".

That said all the normal rules as stated above apply and make sense. Only one person pulls. They call incoming and everyone assists on the same mob.

Agree groups suck in EQ2 to many noobs and to many exeq players who probable sucked in it also. I can tell in less then 3 min if I am staying or not. If I am then we go play if not I just say have to go sorry and disband.

We had a group last night to do SK AQ1 and where waiting for named at Xroads to pop. One person in the group was out trying to kill herds of cows and died once, went right back out again and almost died again, druid healed him took agro and trained guards. He did it a 3rd time druid did the samething again I disbanded him, and he was a guild mate. Well I should say ex :P





Not really following you on this one. Yes you lose debt when you are loged of but you lose none if you are in trader mode. Do you still lose debt if you are playing an alt?

Oh my god do i agree with group rant. i was astonished when i first saw how the groups worked out in the commonlands. as said before the basics of grouping should be automatic, and yet, one group i was in had 3 pullers, none of them communicating what so ever. I have had healers who are doing crafting stuff while we are fighting and not paying attention to the group at all. Mages and sorceres draw agro again and again and again. Now im not saying im the greatest player in the world, hell im a 17 predator, and still learning my class, but the basics you should have down, first thing after hello in any group is "who do we assist?". the one good thing i have learned about my class though is, that if the group keeps dying and pulling the wrong mobs, i can just evade, and stalk my way out of it, thus never dying, although i wrack up grp debt, i dont get my own, which helps a lot. I do try and teach, if they are willing to learn, or if they say this is there first time playing EQ. i like to be the leader of the group, that way, i can have control of how the group works, and if there is a person who is just to stuck on themselves or doing the wrong thing all the time, i can boot them no problem. i would rather have a sub par player who is trying than an arrogant asshat who has no manners or class.

I must admit, like some other posters are saying, that my groups are slowly getting better. There are some really good posts in here - and I wish new players would study them.

I especially like reading other people saying "and if someone does ***** up, don't jump all over them" - that's true. Especially if they say "sorry" right away and show some sign of knowing what they did, there's no reason to harrass them. When I spot a player who doesn't know what he's doing, I often sent him a /tell (so as not to embarrass him) asking him something like "hey, I don't wanna bug you, but do you know what assisting is?" Something like that. It opens the door to teaching them. It can be a pain, but it's usually worth it - players who don't know what they are doing are usually happy to learn.

It can be a pain teaching people, I know - - there's so much to tell them. But if we all chip in and get these newbies taught, the game experience will get better. I have noticed that when someone is really bossy in attepting to teach, it often backfires. If you want to teach, you need to do it w/ some humility if you want to reach others.

What sux though is when you group with newbies and they dont answer in either /tell or /gsay cause they just dont know how.. O,o