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GROUPING IN EVERQUEST

        The act of grouping - up to six players joining forces - takes place to increase the amount of xp (experience) one gains through hunting and taking down NPCs and creatures.
After a certain level, around the mid-20s for most characters, the task of getting xp becomes decidedly dangerous for single players, thus forcing teamwork.

    Although on the face of it, it seems like the xp you had all for yourself is being shared among the group, leaving you with less, in the long run, acting as a group means you sustain less injury, and therefore less downtime to get your health and/or mana back, and so you get onto tackling the next monster quicker than you normally would.
So overall, in a good group at any rate, the amount of shared xp coming to you is more you would get running solo.

    During a character's formative levels, fighting solo against rats and other newbie creatures, you become aware that different animals offer different experience, from green cons (no xp at all), to the most dangerous red cons, which if by some fluke you manage to best, will give you the most xp.

    Quick Con level reminder - by targeting a creature, and pressing 'c' on your keyboard, a colour coded message informs you how dangerous it is.

Teamwork
    Each member in the team brings their own class' strengths to the battle, and should be equally concerned about the safety of everyone.
For example, Enchanters have the unique ability to "mez" (mesmorise) attacking monsters, vital when the group finds itself dealing with multiple enemies. This allows the group to vanquish one, while the other creatures stand patiently by awaiting their turn.
Rangers and Druids can Snare the creature to stop it running off and bringing it's friends.
'Tanks' - normally Warriors and Monks can go toe-to-toe with the beast and keep it's attention from the less physical characters while dealing out immense amounts of damage.
'Pet classes' such as Magicians, Necromancers, and Beastlords contribute an extra pair of damage-dealers in the form of their elemental, skeleton, or mobile-Frosties-advert companions.
Certain casters may find their strength lies in not just their direct damage (DD), damage over time (Dots), spells, such as Wizards, who have the most powerful nukes in the game, but in bolstering the health of other members, such as the life saving Clerics, Shaman, Druids and Paladins.If worse comes to the worst, and the pixellated crap is hitting the fan, both Wizards and Druids can evac' their party from the danger zone.

Roles within the group

1.     LEADER - Usually the person who sets up the group. He or she chooses the group members, usually based on level range.
   As far as I'm aware, all members have to be within five levels of each other so that everyone gets xp.
   Further on, the leader can make selections depending on what the group needs to round it out, eg. more tanks, or another healer. This is the person who should set out looting guidelines, so that everyone, if they want, gets a fair crack at getting money, items and gems, off the mob they have all helped to kill.
   If you, as leader, have a druid or wizard in your group, will you be wanting them to heal or nuke down to their last vestiges of mana, or will you be wanting them to keep some in reserve for an evac spell.
   If you know the zone you are hunting in, it might be wise to have some sort of attack/escape plan, before going in. Again, if you have recruited a class that can sow, ensure everyone has Spirit of Wolf, and that they report if it drops. Sometimes, the 'escape plan' can be as simple as deciding who has the authority to call for the evac.
   
   
2.     PULLER - This lucky chap or chappess gets to run into enemy territory, hopefully select and attract the attention of a single monster, and bring it back to the group.
   If you have this role, it is imperative that you have hotkeys set up with your "Incoming! Monster on it's way" message, so you don't have to type it and run at the same time. If hotkeys are beyond your abilities, ask another player during a quiet moment, and in the short term, just type "inc", the generally accepted shorthand!
   This will put all members on alert.
   NOTE: It is of primary importance that the puller heeds any warnings of low mana from the casters, especially the healers. If you ignore them and continue to bring monsters down onto the group, you risk a total group wipeout!
   
   
3.     TANK - This character will usually serve as puller at some point too. As mentioned before, their sole responsibility is to stand their ground and deal out damage. Most of the combat will be centred around the tank and/or puller.
   
   
4.     HEALER - This position can be held by the Cleric, but Shaman and Druids can often find themselves in the role too.
   This can be an involving role, and involves you taking notice of the life bar status of each group member. If I'm the healer, I usually ask the tank how low I should let him go before I start healing.
   

   This is where the Function keys (F1 to F8) on your keyboard come into play, to help with targeting. For instance, if you see a member's health falling rapidly, and you want to target him to fire a heal in, running your mouse across the screen to target manually wastes vital seconds. Several of your F keys are assigned to each player.   F1 - targets your own sorry behind.   F2 - targets the group leader, eg. the name in yellow (Jraizi) in our example at the left.   F3 - The next person down in your group. Chatranle in our picture.   F4 - The next person down in your group.   F5 - The next person down.   F6 - The last person.   F7 - Targets the nearest player character.   F8 - Targets the closest npc.

   
   
       As the healer, the greatest asset you bring to the group is your mana, as unseen a commodity as it may seem to others. It shouldn't be wasted on blasting the enemy, but preserved for when you or they need medical assistance. You will learn which offensive spells you can cast without using up too much mana.
   Don't be afraid to sit down to get your mana back, and please report your mana level to the group frequently. The accepted shorthand goes thus:
   FOM (full of mana);
   80M (80% mana, meaning four of your five blue bubbles are filled);
   60M (60% mana);
   50M (50% mana);
   40M (40% mana);
   20M (20%);
   OOM (out of mana). This will alert your backup healers, that they need to fill in until you are ready.
   
   
5.     BACKUPS - If you are not required to be puller, main tank, or the healer, you will most probably be backing those worthies up, filling in the gaps, so to speak.
   The /assist command will be important if you are a backup. If you are helping the tank fight one of a group of monsters, or supporting the healer, target your group member, then type /assist.
   You will then be targetting the same person or thing that they were, and free to do your thing.
   
   Example: I fragging love my Area Effect (AE) spells, but if we have an Enchanter in the group, my AE will aggro stuff that has already been mezzed. Therefore, to avoid hitting something that has been parked, I deliberately target the tank, and do /assist.
   That way I know I'm helping to drop the correct mob.
   
   

Group Ettiquette (eg. how to behave in the group)
    We've covered the technical side of grouping, eg. how to keep yourself and your group alive. Now on to how you behave within that team, not least because you may be representing your guild.

1. AFK - Don't go AFK without telling the group. In fact, try not to do it while grouped at all, but if you have to make sure that the others know.
   
   
2. COMMUNICATE - Ask what your role in the group is. Do they want you to do the snaring, or is someone else doing that. Check with people before doing something that affects them. If you have the ability to cast Spirit of Wolf, Breeze, or other buffs, does anyone need them.
   
   
3. DESIGNATED PULLER - One puller to a group. If it isn't you, and you spot a nice juicy sarnak nearby, just leave it alone, and wait with the others. You won't be thanked for bringing along a second monster, especially if there is one already on it's way.
   
   
4. LINKDEAD - Okay, this is from a Surefall Paramedic perspective, and may not be standard procedure, but if a member does go LD while you are in a dangerous area, try to give them a reasonable chance to come back into the game, say ten minutes, before moving on to another area.
   
   
5. LOOTING - Especially if you are joining an established group, check to see what the deal is. You may be looting the corpses in turn, or something. Each member had a hand in taking down those creatures, so you don't have the right to take everything without asking. Oh yeah, make sure you have your money split on (accessed via Options).
   
   
6. OBEY INSTRUCTIONS - I don't care if your "high-level" Wizard is an honorary jedi knight, you don't know every fragging thing. The group or raid leader tells you to do something, do it. With the minimum of argument.
   Of course, if the leader is asking you do something that you cannot do, tell them, since they might be asking too much. They don't know everything either.
   
   
7. POLITENESS - Make a good impression, cos you might meet these same people later when you want another group, or want to join a Plane Raid. Y'know, be polite, thank them for letting you join. Say thanks when you leave the group. That sort of thing.
   
   
8. VENDOR VISITS - In my experience, vendors are not often that close to hunting areas, so wandering off to visit one, especially without telling the group, is A no-no.

Casualties
    So you have sustained casualties, what to do.
Most of the time, nothing. One school of thought suggested that it was a player's duty to find a cleric to rez your friend, and that does have merit on some occasions. I used to drag the corpse to safer areas, but now, I just sit on my duff and wait for their return.

In the corpse is missing in action, your friendly neighbourhood necro, shadowknight, or bard have spells that will help to locate bodies. If you have a 'chipped bone rod', you can pass that to the player missing his body, and they can use it like a divining rod to locate their corpse.

Rescue Tips
    Not strictly within the remit of this guide, but if you are hunting in an area popular with groups, eg. the Windmill in the Lake of Ill Omen, you may have the odd person yelling for help from nearby. Providing your group isn't otherwise engaged, in which case you shouldn't be distracted, you may want to lend a hand.
The Rescue Tips guide at the Surefall Paramedics website may be useful in this regard.

    That is the end of this Grouping guide. If I have missed anything, or you can think of something that should be included, please email me from the top of the page, including your name and server, if you are not SoA.

        Yavinelf Dangerrescue, SoA.
        Surefall Paramedics.