Newbie Guide: The Guides to Leadership

Ok, so here is the submission from Purge and myself. Mostly written by Purge, grammer fixed and a few changes by me.

Setting up a party and organizing the party

- Why is partying beneficial?
- Rules in making a party
- How to set up EQ party
- Rules in tackling EQ mobs
- Dicing
- Making EXP parties

Why is partying beneficial?

Well, exploring solo has its benefits. You don't have to worry about anyone else and you can flee from mobs and take as long as you like to drop the mobs. Still there are a large number of areas that make exploring difficult if you take that task alone. Here are following points to why partying is worth the time to set up.

1. Its fun! Even soloing can be fun, but partying your being more interactive with others in the group.
2. Someone in the party can show you new areas.
3. You stand a better chance surviving attacks from bigger mobs, rather than being on your own.
4. You get to make friends and comrades on your adventurers.

Rules in making a party

There are rules to everything in the mud. You can't escape them. Follow these carefully if you want to try and set up your own party. It's not easy to set up parties as first, and can be extremely frustrating. However, the more you practice, the sooner the task becomes easy to perform.

The DO's in setting up parties

1. Ask politely! This is especially important if you do not know the person well. One wrong word could cause endless problems. A kind "please" or "thank you" is always helpful, even if they decline your offer.

2. Check the person's guild. Do they really fit in your party system? No point asking a thief to come do EQ with you.

3. Try and plan out exactly what it is you want to do with the party, and then tell the person if it's an explore party, EQ or exp party. Do not trick people into parties that offer very little for them.

4. If you're not sure what to do when party has got started, then ask all members in the party what they would like to do. Usually the tank (or party founder) has to decide most times.

5. Learn to be patient when doing EQ. Try not to whine why the mob has not dropped in 10 minutes or so. Although if you're the tank it might be acceptable. Otherwise, if you don't like the party, then leave it.

6. Check the LFG flag. Many still don't use this option, but you never know who is looking for a group.

7. Always try to ask for members by tells, if you get a 'yes' then great! If the answer is 'NO' then say ok and move on to the next potential participant

The DON'TS in setting up parties

1. Do not ask too many people all at once to join the party. The maximum number of party members is eight (8) people.

2. If you're the leader of the party there are a number of things that you need to keep track of. Keep an eye on your members to check if they are ready for an attack. Do not rush in without prots (protection spells), heals or members who have not regained enough mana/recovered from fatigue.

3. Do not attempt take down any mob that clearly looks to be too hard for the party to succeed against. If you are a group of mid-level characters, trying to kill Yeao just isn't feasible. When all members start to cry and complain, just admit defeat and give up on the mob and try again another time.

4. Don't always rely on the MUD channel to set up parties. It's ok for asking for members as a last ditch effort, but most people ignore half-hearted attempts on party creation when asking for members on the MUD channel.

How to set up EQ party

Setting up EQ parties is a lot tougher than it seems. There is a lot of planning involved. The more you make EQ parties, the more likely it is that people will actually ask you to do EQ rather than you having to ask them.

1. Plan the monsters out!

2. When asking for important guild members, try this strategy.
a.Look for an abjurer and healer first if you're a tank asking for party.
b.Look for a tank, abj and healer and cleric first if you're a mage asking for party
c.Look for tank and abj first if you're a healer.
d.Look for tank / abjurer / healer first if you're a cleric.
e.Look for tank and healer first if you're an abjurer.

Why this strategy? Well tanks, healers and abjurers are quite a rare bunch. After all you can always pick up blasters or fighters to do damage in the party. However, the party won't get far without a healer/protter/tanker and cleric.

3. A the core party usually consists of 1 tank, 1 cleric (optional but useful if you are expecting lots of deaths), 1 abjurer and a healer type. The rest just do damage.

4. Whatever mobs you do, try and make sure you get enough items for all in the party members when you come to having to dice the items.

5. Set up a party channel. This is useful for when a lot of members die and no one cant give orders to get members to regroup again. Dead members can keep in contact via the channel.

Rules in tackling EQ mobs

1. Prots (Protection spells) are extremely important. Always make sure the tank has prots to take on the mob. Also make sure the members of the party are protted well enough as well, if the monster does area damage.

2. Leave the cleric in a safe area. If the cleric dies and your members bite the dust, then who will resurrect the party?

3. If the worst comes to worst, go to the tinker shop and ask for a ress there. Usually other clerics hang out there.

4. Always work out who is going to loot the mob when the monster dies before it actually dies. This member should be the only member doing any of the looting during the party. This will make it extremely easy to determine who has the equipment and exactly how many items you have. Someone with trader levels is nice, because they have a bag of holding that can keep all the equipment inside of it.

5. As mentioned before, be sure and wait for members to say they are ready to attack or ask if they are ready for another battle against an EQ mob. Don't go attack when you please. Members will then distrust you and your reputation will go downhill.

6. Dying is mostly unavoidable no matter how well protted you are. Try not to complain too much. Just get ressed and then wait for attacking the monster again. In fact, doing nice EQ and dying lots is worth it in the end. Rather than not dying once and doing easy EQ mobs, which then becomes harder to sell the EQ.

Dicing

1. Always dice in safe areas. There are thieves who will take advantage of a dicing situation during a party if you do not have a safe spot to hand out equipment. Use shelter as a basic safe dicing area. Go to castles and dice if it is possible since guards can be tuned to only allow party members in.

2. Use the wdice command if you have helpers outside the party (this applies when you have eight members and you needed a cleric to help you stay alive a bunch of times).

3. The general rule for dicing is the person who gets the highest number will pick first. Then the next person with a lower number will then pick 2nd and so on further down the line. Those who came last can get to pick twice (if there is sufficient enough equipment to warrant a second round of choosing). Then the 2nd to last will pick again and it will repeat backwards up the dicing list.

4. If you have managed to dice last in the EQ party, try not to whine. No one respects whiners, and it will be extremely harder to get into such a party again. Consider a privilege to even have gotten into an equipment party in the first place.

Making EXP parties

Making exp parties is FAR easier than making EQ parties. These days, however, most people want everything done for them, and as a result not many people actually organize such a party.

1. Again check the LFG option. Also turn your LFG on.

2. Asking for party on the mud channel is fine, just don't over do this. It just becomes spam after a while and no one pays attention.

3. Plan the areas where you want to do exp in. If you have explored well then the planning should not be too difficult. If you have trouble on where to go for exp mobs, you can always try and ask other members for suggestions.

4. Try not to whine about rate all the time. Partying should be fun. If you want rate then go necromancer and be bored to death.

5. Again, protters (guilds with protection spells) are a must. You can't do large enough mobs to make a decent rate without sufficient protection.

6. Healers aren't needed as much for exp parties, but they are nice. Normally a level 60 Abjurer can do both protection and healing for the party, but having a
healer will greatly reduce the stress on the protter. If they use all their sps for healing, then they can't protect the tank.

7. Most exp parties really only need hitters (fighting type guilds). Sorcerers, psionicists, and mages just do lots of damage, but if you only have casters then you will have to wait for them to regenerate mana before continuing.

Okie, mail/tell me if you have questions/concerns/whatever.
Neverwhere/Purge