Making a party in any game is never easy. It is hard to find the classes you need for a party to be efficient, harder to find skilled players and even harder to find people that are in the same mind set and have the ability to both lead and be lead. With the help of some of my viewers and friends we tried to make a group – a premade- to see how the interaction will be and how fast we can level up. We gone for a melee party on Order side. We decided to have the followign composition:
- 2H Knight (Defensive)
- S&B IronBreaker
- Slayer
- Whitch Hunter
- Runepriest
- Warrior Priest (Salvation or Grace)
Now we did not go for perfect efficiency we also factored in what was fun for each one to play. After all it is a game.
Now the problems start, hahahaa….
Q:Who will lead the party?
Everyone wants a party but noone wants to lead. Fear or resposibility? the fact that leading gets you blamed for everything? Or that you have to shout at people to make it work? many reasons.
We decided to give lead to each one that wanted to lead or at least give it a try and see how it goes…
Result: Chaos..Started ok. following the leader in the right direction and using swift assit to hit the same target. It seems that just that was not enough. The party soon started to hit different targets, spliting up and spending more time on talking about where to go, wheather is better to do RVR or Scenatios and what everyone wanted. From having a leader we ended up like a parialemt talking to much and doing nothing. It was time to try a new leader.
Q: Did the new leader help?
Result: Same result.. Time to give another member a try.
Q: Did the new leader help?
Result: This time, the leader was more strong. Was very vocal, calling movements, targets, and dictacted what the group will do. No room for discusions and debate. The day went better for the most part. Then it all went to hell again. (Should have taken breaks). Tired, slowly started to be less vocal. The previous lead did not help the others to keep it up and all started to hit their own targets, giving orders creating confusion, movement became hectic and instead of moving as one we become a pug type group. It seems IF you are going to lead you need to control everything, give no choises to the members and constatly remind them / tell them what to do. Call skills, movement, targets,directions, even remind them to be vocal when they need help.
Q: Did everyone follow the leaders commands all the time?
Result: No. Sometimes other dps would call out targets. This is not bad as long as they inform the leader to see if he missed a target and if he decides to switch to switch. Unfortunately we had cases where someone would call a new target and all would switch to it.. negating the leader. The chaos was breaking loose. By the time the leader realised that the party had switched to a new targert with out commad the target was dead.. and lost time to find that dead target cause no one said “target down” and the party fell apart hitting anything around waitting for new target from the leader. This indpendant command that the other should not have followed, screwd things up.
Q: Was the party moving as one?
Result: Most of the times yes. As long as we called for a regroup, waitted and checked along the way 3-4 times that everyone was there. yes. Otherwise we had snake issues.
Q: How did the respawing worked?
Result: Breaking habbits is hard. Most of the time people would respawn from the habbit of playing alone even with 2 healers in the party making things awkward!
Q:Did the respawn thing work the same in RVR and in Scenarios?
Result: Yes for the most part. As long we called a regroup and people to wait it was ok. The strange thing is that as long you said something it worked. After saying it 50 times that it worked and then you did not say it once and everyone runs in solo and die. Strange how after 50 times regrouping not becoming a new habbit. Or to wait for the leader and move as one.
Q: So your group was the same 6 every day ?
Result: The party was formed by members of the stream and that was the original plan and annoucenment, that we need 6 people that can play every day 6 hours during stream time. We had people that were 1-2 hours late, leaving early. We tried to replace, but it was harder than we thought. Eventualy we had to occusionaly replace some members and move forward but it was working ok.. and even better with some members.
Q: How focused can a 6 man be? How focused was your group?
Result: A 6 man can be really focused when all want the same thing in the same way. Some are more competitive than others, also have different ideas of how the game is played. Example. For me, when i play 6 man i want it to be 90% focused listening, talking (about targets and ssists, not how their day was). discord on ( quite – only game related things). Others want a more casual approach such as chit-chat and when a fight comes up, call a target while chating other stuff. Or other going to get a beer without telling you and then you die and the answer to… WTF man? chill man its a game. Defenetly you can play like that as long as everyone is in, for anyone afking with no notice.. but i feel that is more of pug thing. Whats the point of a group with voice if you not use it right?
Q:How did the group react to loosing / winning?
Result: Well…When winning all is good and all follow.. when loosing 1 -2 fights its ok man. More loses then it get rough. Even if you end up playing 6 vs 48 in RVR it still gets rough even if everyone knows thats RVR and there is nothing you can do. At the loosing strike people start to pay less attention, most anyways, and some even start to pick their own direction and target with out even notifying. They could say that they want to lead take up the mandle but alot dont want the responsibility. They want to play that way and then say “Look at my heal / dps on the scorboard” I did my party what you did ?
Q: Will this experience make you play 6 man again?
Result: Yes and no. If i Find people that actualy know how to lead and be tough and shout and control the group and be in for everything in a session even 100% loss and no gains, YES. No if the party is all over the place.. Better to just be solo, do what i can and thats it. It is too much effort to try and control people that dont want to follow and want to lead but with out the resposibility.Or people that just want to chat in disocrd and relax after work. I like it when i play – to know how i play. Today is casual day we go all together and have fun pug style not much attention. Today we go in as a 6 man focused, quite and we own. There are many types of game play.. as long as all are in the same page it works.. but only when all are in the same page.
Things that you might want to check before you make 6 man:
- Ability to be on time every day ( have replacedments on hand).
- Make sure you all have the right build so skills dont overlap. ex. Who get Heal debuff, who does knowckdowns etc.
- Make sure the people have ability to follow group tightly and be focused.
- Members with no mic is a big problem don’t even start to play until all 6 have mics.
- Members with different play style is problematic. Make sure you are all on the same page (playstyle).
- Make sure that the leader does not try to please everyone and goes out of his way for that will cause frustration. Let him / her know that is loosing control.
- Members stepping over leader’s voice when he is quite – giving orders, leads to confusion. Step up and tell them to be quite we have a leader. Protect the group form it self.
- Selfish members that want to gear up before others are alwasy around. Make sure that it is clear that everyone will be geared up but in differnt times. Some need RvR gear some Sc gear.
- One man leaving causes problems with psycology. Keep that in mind and try to keep everyone up and happy. Like it’s ok.. we do the best we can until get a new player etc. Don’t let the group get disapointed and loose interest in the game.
- Make sure you go through the day at the end of your session and identidy problems so you can work on them next time. Do it after the session while its all fresh.
Things to do for a more efficient grouping/fights:
- Move as a group.
- Make sure your skill are complimenting each other.
- Make sure you coordinate moral drops.
- Make sure you are all on the same page for daily goals so that no one is disapointed.
- Make sure you all have the right built and skills to help the party i.e heal debuffs etc
- Make sure you talk and infrom the party when using spesific skills like heal debuff, stagger etc so that they know to burst or avoid to break staggers.
Making a group or a warband is essential for the game and it makes it more fun. It might be hard to get a good tight group going… but once you get it going its worth it. Solo can be fun but nowhere as rewarding as a group fight. I believe that you need to look for a good group of people with the same mentality. Either a group of real life friends or a nice guild that you can get along with most people. And try not to get disapointed.. MMORPGS take time, commitment, and patience to build something like everything else in life, this is not an arena game. I hope this post will help you cut some corners on making a succefull party / guild.