Submitted by sam on Mon, 06/21/2004 - 17:00.

One of the most difficult things to learn how to do well is working effectively in a party. Often, if one or more party members are not up to snuff the whole party will suffer. Once you get to a certain point in the game, this will be intolerable to you. This book will help you get up to speed on the essentials of good partying.

Basic Knowledge

Let's start by some basic knowledge and terminology you will need to be able to get the most from this guide.



The Basic Party Unit

The basic party unit consists of two essential members: the healer and the tank. Without these two members, your party will be less than effective in all but a few rare situations. The healer and the tank should be intimately coupled. It is the healer's job to keep the tank alive, and it is the tank's job to keep the healer alive.



Beyond these fundimental components, your party can be filled with any number of other types of members such as damage dealers, enhancers, enfeeblers, addtional tanks and healers, or others.

Hate Control

When we talk of "Hate" in the game, we're talking about the hate or emnity of the enemy toward someone in your party. As you attack an enemy, damaging them, or as you heal the person who is attacking the enemy, you will generate hatred from the enemy toward yourself. The more hate the enemy has for you, the more likely they will attack you.



The key is that the tank has to have the most hate in the group so the enemy will be focused on them. This can be a real problem because things like healing the tank, or doing excessive amounts of damage to the enemy, will draw the enemy away from the tank. This means that the tank has to constantly be doing things to refocus the enemy on them.



Hate conntrol is a tricky subject, and it is key to the effective group. So, we will return to it later on.

Enemy Difficulty

When you fight in a group, you will need to take on enemies that are difficult to your group. If you take on enemies that are simply "tough" then your group will not get much more EXP than if you were to be fighting some "decent challenge" and "even match" enemies individually.



This means that the "sweet spot" for enemies to fight in groups is generally "incredibly tough" (IT) or "very tough" (VT).



Of course, with this "sweet spot" comes some responsability. You must identify in each area what you can and cannot fight. For example, certain types of Jellies and Slimes may only identify as VT to your group, but if you are primarily melee attackers they will be very difficult to kill. Another example is in the Valkurm Dunes there are many types of Goblins. At certain levels, they will all identify as IT. However, Goblin Leechers have "Blink" (the ability to absorb a few attacks) and "Cure II" (the ability to heal themselves quite a bit) and Goblin Gamblers can cast "Blaze Spikes" (which means every time a melee hits them, the melee takes damage). So even though these Goblins are IT like the rest of the Goblins in the area, they will still be harder to beat.

Zoning

The last essential bit of knowledge needed is an understanding of the concept of zoning. Zoning means to run for an exit from the area. This could mean running to an entrance to a city, or an entrance to a dungeon, or just running to another area.



You zone when you are being attacked by an enemy (or enemies) that you cannot possibly defeat. If you can make it to the zone without being killed, then you will survive and the enemy will stop following you. You should heal and give the enemy some time to forget about you and wander off (or be killed) before returning to the area.



Often whole parties should zone together. This is because, even if an enemy is focused on one member of the party, he will still remember the rest of the party and will probably come back gunning for them.