SWToR is ultimately a Social game. It aside from Questing and grind leans heavily on group play, especially at lvl 50. in group play 3 player roles come up in a holy trinity of sorts: The tank, The healer and the DPS. Tanks soak the brunt of a monsters anger and takes heavy hits that would flatten a non-sturdy player. Healers will heal; they keep the tank topped off to take more punches to the face and keep nikung dps alive to whittle the boss down. And the Dps are usually what kills a creature off, all while its distracted by the tank.
Its a great system, teamwork can be a whole lot of fun. But in order for teamwork to flourish, we need to embrace the fact that this is people, working with other people. And people have different ways of behaving. some good..some bad. Here is a guide to my view on behaving in a group, in order for it to succeed and down that boss in the end, all while having fun. Enjoy
Do your set role***
Do not demand tho play someones character for them, or badger them with tips they do not want nor need. (unless they ask) its one thing to offer tips if you see a struggling tank who may not know whereto go. But lets get things very straight here - there are 3 roles in this game Tank, Healer and DPS play the role your class is intended, do not try to be one of the other classes. More on this later.
Defer to the tank***
The tank is your meatshield, this big blob of pixels is the deciding factor wether the beast will drop loot or eat your party for lunch. All pulls and the general speed of the dungeon, is set by the tank. More often than not you will find that people tend to look at the tank as the leader of the group. Not entirely a bad mindset, since he is the man going first into all the skirmishes. If the tank does not know the dungeon/flashpoint he should say so from the beginning. EVERYONE should say so in the beginning, "hi guys, first time here". This alleviates ALOT of problems that usually occur along the flashpoint or OP.
Let the tank get agro.
To many times we see that the jedi guardian does his leap into a mob cluster or a single target mob. This is there the DPS guys usually get too ****y. Try to refrain from the horribly bad habit of launching your highest damaging attack on a mob that the tank has only had ½ a second attack time on. LEt the guy build a little agro first, and then unleash your fury upon the poor mob. Too often we see FP groups handling mob clusters poorly due to this, the fight is just going all over the place, when in fact it should be a very easy centered fight, the tank builds his agro, and group unloads all their AOE attacks, quick easy and with no casualties. So for crying out loud..let the tank build alittle agro before you go nuts. it will keep you alive and your tank and healer sane.
It should also be noted that u often encounter groups where there is different levels of mobs within the group. FX it could be 2x Gold elite mobs or silver for that matter. and or 2-4 regular trashmobs, non-elites. As a tank you should focus your attention on these elites first, build agro on them untill youve got their attention, then focus on the trash mobs. This is the usual way for a tank to do things. and your healer will love you for it. Main threat generation on elites, and use AOE threat to pick up the trash. I urge you all to go read tanking guides, theres plenty outthere, EVEN if youre not a tank! go read them. Understanding the other classes better will dramatically increase the understanding of your own.
Guarding*** Now, the tanks get a defensive option called Guard - this ability has been highly discussed among the forums But heres my take on it.
The guarded player receives a flat 5% damage reduction and generates 25% less threat. Some people see the damage reduction and immediately think of the healer. 5% is not enough to jusitfy wasting the 25% threat reduction on them. Use it on a melee DPS player that is going to be fighting next to the boss. Generally they will do the most DPS and are at the highest risk of pulling aggro onto themselves.
However, i do believe this ability is to be used situationally. When groups encounter those big clusters of 5+ mobs, the tank should consider throwing the guard on the healer for a moment simply because of those 1-2 mobs that wont be hit or gain enough threat from tank, as soon as the healers starts healing tank, those 2 mobs run straight for the healer, having guard on the healer when encountering those clusters, can make the FP go much faster.
i know this part didnt have much to do with the subject of this post, but i thought it important anyway. Protect the healer***
Being a healer in any MMO is one of the most unforgiving tasks ever created. The amount of banter and flaming the healer gets when group wipes is just staggering. "lets blame it on the healer" is the usual theme. Even tho 9 out of ten times its not the healers fault, some one else screwed up somewhere. The healer has a couple of things that he absolutely Loves, and absoluty hates and dispises. One thing he loves, is a tank that knows his stuff, he LOVES a tank that pays attention to his healers HP bar, and tries to keep his healer in camera view. He alse Loves when DPS roles actually do the job that means protecting the healer. Often you will get these before mentioned mob cluster encounters, now even the best of tanks dont always pick up all of the mobs in the group, chances are that 1-2 of the mobs will turn its attention on the healer as soon as tank recieves his heals. As the healer usually stay in the back, tank may not notice if a melee mob runs towards the healer and starts bashing and gnawing on him. This is where DPS roles should be awake and try to have an overview. I play a Gunslinger smuggler myself. and im allways very close to the healer and keep my eye on him. if a mob attacks him, im on that mob in an instant. if healer dies..I die! this is the teamwork that is needed to succeed. so all you DPSers outthere, even tho its the tanks job, look at your healer now and then. is he okay?
The one thing that healers hate most however, is explain in the DPS part, so keep reading
DPS***
Damage classes, the most played class in nearly any MMO is and probably allways will be, the damage class. All the big numbers, the damage, the destruction, the Crits and critchance..Glorious isnt it? Well not allways... As i promised in the last part, id explain the one thing healers hate the most. Damage classes who think they can tank!. im gonna put alittle flame on the jedi sentinels and its equivalent the Sith marauder. The reason i do so is because of personal experience from running FPs, that these guys love their force leap ability more than anything. i agree, its fun...looks freakin awesome and its action packed and hilarious! But my god does the healer hate that. Not only has there been MANY many groups that have wiped because of this guy who pulls from the left when tank pulls from the right. Standing the screaming "heal me!! HELP!!" and when he dies calls the healer a stupid moron..amazing.. let me say this as nicely as possible : as a dps...DONT F***ING EVER DO THAT!!! its just bad playing and highrisk, puts pressure on all 3 other members and everyone is having a bad experience having you in their group. Do your job as DPS, you wait till the tank pulls..give him a second to build agro..then go nuts on the non elites. That is your main job, its very very simple and very difficult to screw up. And everybody is happy.
Learn how your damage class works, read guides, ask around. Learn how to do your stuff. And make yourself an example of that class, give it a good rep for the others. Healer*** Your job is to heal. Just heal. Odds are you won't be able to juggle healing and attacking at the same time, and no one is asking you to try. The DPS can handle that. Focus on healing, even if you have time and energy to spare. When the poo hits the fan, you'll be thankful you were patient. The key to saving groups is priority. As much as we'd like to heal everyone, we won't always be able to. The tank is your top priority - he stays alive at all costs. Then it's you (the healer), and lastly the DPS (typically melee before ranged). If a DPS or two goes down in fire, it's regrettable, but it's not a wipe. If the tank goes down, everyone is in trouble. As i said earlier, the role of healing is very unforgiving, alot of players just dont grasp this priority prospect, so when you have to focus on that tank, even tho you know the dps player is going down, often the healers will find themselves victims of all sorts of verbal abuse when fight is over. Dont let it go to your head, ignore these comments, if you didnt wipe, you did it right.
Say hello***
Be social! Some groups are just stone quiet, but some once a conversation has started can make what could be a boring run into a fun filled entertaining ride. Sometimes group chemistry can save what would have been a terrible wipe fest.
Say a party member is feared by a mob into a deep pit making them non resurrectable. A funny outlook can make the difference between a rage quit of all party members to the group cracking jokes at the event and pushing on. And yes this did happen to me. During a server lag spike... Now keep in mind your group. Unless you are amongst close friends/guildies that accept such humor, keep the jokes PG unless the group is open to that. Nothing like joining a pug and hearing a slew of racial/sexist/orientation ect. type jokes, only to find one or more members were offended. Having members angry, uncomfortable, or just plain not wanting to be their due to someone putting their foot in their mouth can and will affect group performance. In fact if you join a group and this is the standard banter, call them out on it. If a group persists, leave. The beauty of the queue system is groups are a dime a dozen to find. Also when you leave the group, say ty for a good run when its apropriate. if it was a crap run, i dont say it ofc. But if it was smooth run with no wipes..thank people for it, wish them a good day. Make the game experience fun for those around you, youll find you will get invited to groups when you are nice to people. Combat looting***
This here is one of the main things that i think of when i hear the term Group etiquette. When you fight 5 mobs, kill the first mob and he drops a green item. Most players just cant help themselves. They loot it, and a Need/greed bar pops up in the middle of the screen. this is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING!! Not to mention dangerous for the teams efforts, simply because when you get a loot option for a sexy new blue item and it looks like you can use it. what happens is that most people lose focus on the battle, and start thinking really fast wether to need or greed on this thing. Combat looting has caused ALOT of wipes in MMOs over the time.. Try to refrain from doing this.
Ninja looting*** These are the guys i hate more than anything in the world of gaming!! my god it pisses me off when some smuggler needs on a saber or even worse, people needing on items for their class, when they are allready wearing same item, or better. /RAGE!!!! personally i instantly vote people who ninja loot. It gives everyone a bad experience of the game..it gives the game ITSELF a bad rep! "so how is that SWTOR game?" - - "it stinks!!! people ninja loot like maniacs, dont play it" thats not good for anyone. Quit ninja looting!!
Buffs *** Now Swtor is very simple when it comes to buffs. u got 1 - and u dont have to target players to use it when u see all 4 players in group in range at beginning of instance..hit the buff. When a player dies and comes back..Hit the buff. Simple...love it. But heres some good etiqutte for you that will go along way of making SWTOR a happy place. I practise this myself, and it often pays back. When you downed the last boss and looting is overwith.. I buff again, refreshing peoples buffs for when they go leveling is something that people absolutely LOVE. i encourage everyone to do this.
use the droid*** in many FPs - like hammer station as an example, there is a vendor right at the beginning. USE THIS VENDOR! especially for repairs. many people join the FPs straight from mission areas, they should repair as the very first thing. The droid also holds Stims and medpacks. i encourage you all to spend alil cash here if you dont have any stims in you bag. These buffs are quite beneficial and can mean the difference between success and wipe.
world bosses and looting***
Ive done a couple of world bosses now, and theres something very rotten in the old republic... When boss goes down, and someone died. 2 things happens if youre out of range from the world boss when it dies ( no idea how far it acutally is. ) what happens is that you 1: dont get the achievement and 2: you dont get to roll on the loot. This is a game mechanicn that absolutely STINKS! hope they fix it soon.
Ninja looting is also a very very common use at these encounters. SO! what i recommend here, is that the OPs leader swithc to master looter. heres why - when the loot is standard round robin, someone allways has to right click to see whts inthere. its simply irresistable. and i quite understand that but as mentioned, the guys out of range dont get to roll. i find that VERY unfair. When the Leader uses master loot he is the only one able to loot, and so the fair minded leader will wait till everyone is in range. Then and only then will he right click.
Now heres there trick, people tend to mistrust the master loot option. You shouldnt. Theres actually a larger chance that master looter will give you the item fairly , than to rob all of it himself. personally ive never seen master looters ninja in swtor, not yet anyway.
So what the Master looter then does..say theres a Belt that drops for Troopers - the leader will get the chat attention of the members. Link the item, and ask people who can use it to roll - heres an example "allright Troopers do a /roll 100 for (awesome purple belt with pretty lights)" And the troopers only will roll, leader will take notice of who wins. and simply grant the item to him. This method lowers the ninja looting DRAMATICALY! and ensures that every man in group gets a fair shot at the loot.
Bosses ***
This reminds me... Alot of times i see players with no knowledge of a boss encounter..they dont even ask how to beat him. So this often results in a wipe..wich is ridiculously time consuming and annoying,. if you encounter a boss you havent done before simple do a /p "guys, whats the tactics on this boss??" and you will Never find that people insult you or anything. youll get a quick short explanation and off you go,, Boss down!
End***
So, theres just some of the areas that i wanted to cover regarding etiquette. im sure theres more stuff to cover, feel free to write a commment and i may add this to the post. like space tapping through convos in Black talon when all players have done it before. i might add that.
Anyway i hope you all enjoyed this article later on i think ill track down and add some links for class guides. Stay safe everyone - Force be with you !
