The 'How To' of Partying.
First off, the party board in Tantallon (w, s, u from Xroads) is a good place to put your name down and find party members (see the board there for more details). Shifters have not been popular party members almost since the class first opened, but we're gaining in popularity and the fact that you're a shifter shouldn't stop you from skill tagging at least.
In a party, the experience gained by members (when an NPC dies) is distributed among party members based on their level. For example, two level 19 characters party together and each get 50% of the experience share. If a level 19 character and a level 18 character party together, the level 19 character gets 52% of the experience, while the level 18 character gets 48%. An interesting thing to note is that when three characters of the same level party together, they each get 33%, leaving most of us wondering where the last 1% is (3 x 33% = 99%).
Basics:
Be equipped and ready for the party.
Bring some of your own money to the party, for heals. I suggest at least 2000 coins for most semi-serious parties. Take more for serious parties.
The money at the end of the party will be split after all equipment is sold. Hopefully, your party made a profit (unless the party was interrupted, stopped prematurely or you made lots of experience or skills).
Speak on the partyline so that you and your party can look back at thistory for anything missed in the spam (while running around or in combat).
Know how to use the 'ps' command. It's helpful to check the hps/sps of party members, the experience gained and duration of the party.
Roles:
Skill tagger:
Also called 'tagger', this is a simple role.
You are not part of the 'party'; you are more of a follower.
You follow the tank and 'assist' during combat.
You generally carry only your weapon (and heals for higher-level forms).
Sometimes the party will get you to look after corpses, equipment or heals, when they're all full or more permanently.
Basher:
Follow the leader. Best way is to follow the tank, even if someone else is leading, just in case the tank runs out of the room in the middle of combat.
Have a 'rescue me' alias, to let your tank know that you need to be rescued. Combat can be very spammy, so your alias will need to be obvious. For example, <<*****RESCUE SHARN*****>>.
Have an assist alias for your tank (or whoever attacks first).
Have an alias to rescue the tank. Hopefully, you won't need it.
Sort out who will:
- take care of disposing of corpses
- get equipment from corpses
- drop and pickup the heals, before and after battle
Bashers with a Tree or Treant tank will need to sell equipment and buy heals at indoor shops.
Some tanks may not know any directions. In this case, you may need to lead the party around.
Tank:
This one is a little harder and the details will depend on your class, race and form, but the general idea is the same.
Always remember how to get out of reach of the NPC you are in combat with (and any others, for that matter). This might be as simple as remembering the room's exit direction, or it could be having to type in a particular phrase, run through other aggressive NPCs, teleport, gate, dimension door, 'dream', or even quit.
You recruit bashers and/or taggers to pound NPCs while you take the damage.
You have aliases to rescue your bashers/taggers.
You need to keep an eye out so that your bashers/taggers are not being attacked, and rescue them when they are.
You generally wear the best armour, unique or otherwise.
You initiate the attack against an NPC, or a basher/tagger initiates the attack and you rescue them.
Most tanks are expected to know directions, but a basher could lead the party around.
Since you are taking the hits, make sure your bashers know what they're doing. Explain the rules before you start, if you have to.
If you want someone to rescue you, make sure you give them time to notice and rescue. Warning them beforehand is probably a good idea.
For Xaerre tanking, see THIS page.
Advanced Tanks:
In addition to the above, you take into consideration the skills, special attacks and abilities of your bashers/taggers (and your own healing capacity) to structure your experience runs.
Killing a few easy NPCs in between harder NPCs allows you and your party to recharge hps and sps.
The experience level of your party also defines whether you can kill harder kills (like Glock or Blor) without using tremendous amounts of heals, or whether a larger number of smaller kills is more cost-efficient. You may want to spend the extra money, for more experience or gaining the higher skills.
If you are leading the party (and I suggest you do), you will need to lead back to a town (although most large areas have sellers and some heals) to sell equipment and buy more heals. It is easier to sell equipment and buy heals when you finish an area than half-way through it, particularly since some areas have a few layers of guards that you need to fight through. For example, Kazarov's Orc Mountain has three sets of guards before the main NPCs.
Also, some areas are further away from town, so it might be easier to sell beforehand and bring enough heals for a few remote areas, then go all the way back to town to sell and resupply.
Dual-tanking:
Dual-tanking can be a very effective way to kill faster. However, it can be hard to do it right.
The drawback to this method is that most classes load themselves with armour when they tank. When this happens, either the armour has to be switched between tanks (inconvenient in battle; it takes too long and one tank will be attacked without armour, but good aliases and reflexes could help) or both tanks need to be loaded down (which restricts carrying capacity, but taggers and bashers could carry extra).
Drakons, Trees and Treants don't have these problems as they are their own armour. Dual-tanking in a party of only two Trees or Treants wouldn't work as well, as they don't do a great deal of damage.
Dual-tanking Drakons, on the other hand, is a scary thought. Two Mystical-Breath-using Mystical Drakons in a party could deal a large amount of damage, and their natural armour class (particularly when combined with an elf's dodging) allows them to tank very effectively. If the heals were dropped at the beginning of a combat and each Drakon took care of their own smoking and medicinals, the transition between tanks would be easy. Combine this with two Heroic Xaerres with high strength, high club skill, damaging clubs and thrown weapons and you could seriously damage anything you came up against.
