How to group (Lowbie oriented)

This is an excerpt from my noobie guide, but I thought it would be helpful here as well

You will start getting quests for dungeons. They are often called instances as well. These instances are setup to encourage group play, provide different types of challenges, and they give out better than average equipment. You will need a well balanced party of similar levels to complete them. It might seem tempting to have your high level friend take you through these so you can hog all the items and get the quests done quickly but I recommend you try it with a group of players around your same level. You will learn a lot this way and later on in higher level instances you will know what you are doing and it will save you, and other players, lots of frustration. The earlier level instances are easier and give you time to figure things out. If you wait until later to learn party ettiquette and group skills you will often be kicked out of a group so they can find a better prepared player. Before doing an instance make sure your armor is repaired. You have plenty of food and bandages. You have ranged ammo if your class uses it. And you have any needed spell components. Shaman should have ankhs for self-resurecting, rogues should have their poisons and flash powder etc. Bringing along some health potions will always come in handy as well but people won't expect you to have them.

A typical 5-man group is usually one tank, one healer, one melee damage class, one ranged damage class, and one extra that can be any of the above. This is by no means the only way to do it, but this has been a proven formula for sucess. In higher levels you will do groups of 10, or 25, or even 40! But don't think you can slack off in a group. Each member is important. Even in a 40 man raid, each person has a job to do and if they don't do it the whole group will face disaster. In a 5 man group, The tank will usually "pull" the monsters to the group. Then he uses his skills to maintain aggro so the monsters will attack him and not the other members of the party. If he does a good job it makes life easier for the healer since they will only need to focus on healing one person and they won't run out of mana wasting heals on 3 different people. The job of the damage classes is to hit the same target the tank is fighting and do as much damage as they can without drawing the attention of the mob away from the tank. Also as a secondary job, they are to protect the healer. Healing will draw the attention of the mob away from the tank as well. So if you ever see a monster going for your healer, do everything you can to draw it away. If the healer dies, usually the whole party dies with him. If you save the healer even at the cost of your own life you did a good thing. The healer will be able to resurrect you shortly after the fight and you can continue on with minimal downtime. A good tank is the key to a good party though. If the tank is holding aggro well, the damage classes can go all out and the healer won't have to worry about being hurt since the monsters are all focused on the tank. A good healer is key to keeping the tank alive. And good damage classes are important for killing the monsters quickly so they die before the healer runs out of mana and can't heal the tank anymore. Each role supports one another and that's why if each member knows their role and does their job, your party will have an easy time even when things go wrong a good party will survive a catastrophie where an disorganized party would easily be killed.

Some groups will have what's called an "off-tank" usually it's when they have an extra warrior around. The way an off-tank works is they will draw aggro from one monster and keep it away from the group and fight it one on one while the rest of the group kills the other monsters. It's usually a warrior because they need to be tough enough to take a beating while the healer focuses on the main tank. Once the group kills the other monsters they then heal the off-tank and help him finish off his monster. If the off-tank manages to kill it on his own, he would then go assist the party with the other remaining monsters. This really helps in pulls where there are multiple monsters. For example, the tank shoots his gun at a group of 4 monsters and they all start charging the party. The tank can try and hold the aggro of all 4 monsters but with each extra monster it's more difficult to keep each one focused on the tank. Usually with that big of a group the tank takes more hits, which means the healer is healing more, but the tank's aggro is split across 4 monsters and it won't take much for the healer to heal enough to catch the attention of a monster. That monster will start attacking the healer which may end up killing the healer causing the whole group die. But if you have an off-tank they would grab one of the monsters charging the party and lead it away from the group and it gives the tank just 3 to deal with. Meaning less hits, less healing, and better control of the group of monsters pulled. Some classes have what is referred to as crowd control, a way to take a monster temporarily out of combat. Mages can turns things into sheep, rogues can sap, warlocks can seduce, priests can shackle undead. The idea behind this is similar to the strategy of off-tanking. It gives the group one less monster to worry about and once they kill the rest of the group the can go back to the crowd controlled monster. The hardest part about it is getting everyone in the group to leave the crowd controlled monster alone. Because if you attack it while it's sheeped or sapped etc. it will free it to go cause trouble with the rest of the party. Communication is the key to coordinate what is being off-tanked, what is being crowd controlled etc.

We could talk about group strategy all day but it can be summed by saying know your role. Even as situations get harder fulfilling your role will be the key to survival in group enviroments. Most parties will have experienced players that know their role, and someone who doesn't sticks out like a sore thumb. Not filling your role will lead to your parties death and a long run back to your corpse. If you need help let the party know you are new, most players are happy to take a moment out to explain what you need to do or discuss the strategy for bosses. It's a lot easier to help someone than die and get frustrated and waste time running back to the instances, resurrecting, getting buffs, and getting organized again and then discuss strategy so it doesn't happen again. So make sure you ask for help when you need it. It saves a lot of time and energy. Not to mention a lot of times parties fall apart after a "wipe." They will get frustrated and leave the party. Once one person leaves it's usually hard to find a quick replacement and more people leave rather than wait around and eventually you have no party left and you will need to find a new party and start over again. After you have done it with a group, by all means have your high level buddy take you through it so you can have all the money and items. Just don't rob yourself of the chance to learn to do it right. It will pay off in the long run because it will make you a better player.

While we are discussing party tactics we should discuss how loot works in groups. One new thing you will find is when you are in a party some of the better items will ask players to roll for them. You will have a small window come up that asks you if you "need" or "greed" the item.The general rule is to roll need, if and only if the item is usable by you and is an upgrade to your current gear. Most players are very understanding when a player needs an item. But on the other hand it is a big deal if you take advantage of this and roll need on things you don't. Most parties will remove you from the group for doing it and it damages your reputation. If you have a reputation as a "ninja looter" you will find it hard to find people to group with. Some people even get kicked out of guilds for it. If more than one person chooses need the computer will "roll" and it generates a random number between 1-100 for each player and whoever has the higher number will recieve the item. If you don't need an item choose greed or if you are feeling generous you can pass on the item. All players that picked greed will then roll and the item given to the highest roll. If everyone passes then no one recieves the item automatically and it can be picked up by anyone that feels like looting the corpse. In some parties blue items (the extremely good items) will have special rules. Like everyone must pass and then let the group discuss who will recieve it. Either by talking out who could use it most or doing a more organized roll. The winner will then be allowed to loot the corpse to recieve the item. It is important to go over what the loot rules are early on. You'd hate to pass on a blue you could have used expecting to talk it out but have someone else who didn't know roll need and get it without you having a chance. Most blue items bind when they are picked up, so they can't be traded to other players. That's why most groups like to talk things over so mistakes aren't made, people get pretty upset when they lose out on good items unfairly and believe it or not people will leave groups over this. So make sure you are being fair when you choose need and things will work out just fine.