The Ultimate LoTRO Newbie Guide - Part 5: Grouping 101
by Cameron "Aelryn" Sorden
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Who needs Gimli? Start your own fellowship!
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Sure, this game is very friendly to solo players (people who choose to play by themselves). But what's the fun in that? Chances are good that if you're playing a massively multi-player game, sooner or later you'll want (or need) to group up with other players. We'll talk about how you do that, what it involves, and how to make sure that people will want to play with you again in this section.
First, lets lay out some basics. You may have heard the term "grouping" from your friends or on a game website. In Lord of the Rings Online, a "fellowship" is what they call groups. A fellowship allows you to share experience points, loot, and quest objectives with up to five fellow adventurers (so it's a maximum party size of six). You don't get as much loot or xp per kill as you would playing by yourself, but usually the speed at which you can kill things and complete quests in a group more than makes up for the loss. It also allows you to participate in fellowship chat and voice chat with the other players.
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The first thing you'll have to do when you want to group is find some other players. Seems easy, right? They're everywhere! Well, the truth is that not everyone you see is going to want to join your fellowship. They might be soloing, they might have different quests than you, or they might be too high or low level to help you out. The best way to find players with similar objectives is either to ask in the "LookingForFellowship" chat channel or use the built in LFF tool.
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You'll often see players asking for a fellowship to complete a certain quest. If you have that quest, join them! You'll be glad you did, because otherwise you might be stuck looking for a fellowship yourself later if you find you can't complete it alone. They can invite you into their fellowship once you send them a tell or reply in the channel where they asked for help. If you want to make your own fellowship, you can do it by either typing "/invite playername" or by targeting them, right-clicking on their portrait, and clicking "invite." Don't just randomly invite people, though! While some people may not mind and will join you, many players consider it rude to send an invite without first asking them if they want to join up.
Time for a little role-playing-- what's yours?
Don't panic... I'm not talking about actual role-playing. I'm talking about playing your group role. There are a number of roles to fill in any given group, and usually there are several classes that can fill any given one. You'll hear about tanks, healers, dps or nukers, cc or mezzers, buffers, and debuffers (among others). If that just sounded like a big string of gibberish to you, don't worry. It's actually pretty simple. Let me explain.
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The tank is the character that fights on the front line and keeps the attention of whatever you're fighting while the rest of the group does their jobs. This guy lives to soak up damage and protect others from punishment, so classes that can wear heavy armor and have lots of morale are perfect for this role. Guardians are tailor-made to be tanks in LoTRO, although Captains and Champions can also tank in a pinch.
The healer keeps everyone alive long enough to beat the bad guys into a soft, flesh-colored paste. He'll generally stand on the back line and pay close attention to everyone's morale bar, dropping heals as needed. Minstrels are the best healers in the game right now, so if you're a minstrel, this is likely what you'll be responsible for. Keep an eye on both Lore-masters and Captains, though. Both can toss down support heals, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Turbine give them a more active healing role in the future.
DPS stands for "damage-per-second." The DPS characters, often called "nukers" when they do damage from afar, are the people who specialize in face-planting monsters quickly and efficiently. They usually have one purpose: do as much damage to the tank's target(s) as quickly as they can. Hunters and Champions really shine in this role, but pretty much any class in LoTRO can serve as extra DPS.
Mezzers, or cc (which stands for crowd control) characters, are responsible for keeping additional monsters or "adds" busy while the rest of the group focuses on the primary target. This can be a very important role in a situation where the fights are pretty challenging, because it allows the group to fight one enemy at a time, on their own terms, instead of trying to battle a horde of monsters all at once (which is chaotic and confusing). Lore-masters are intended to be the primary cc class, but several classes have cc-style abilities.
Buffers and debuffers either use beneficial skills on the party ("buffing" them) or harmful skills on the enemy (debuffing them). The types of spells usually affect things like statistics, attack speed, and damage resistance. Naturally, these characters can improve the fighting ability of your team and hamper your enemies. Good buffs and debuffs can make an incredibly challenging battle into a walk in the park if handled correctly. Captains are the primary buffing class in LoTRO, while both Lore-masters and Burglars make excellent debuffers.
Now that I've explained the many roles that are necessary in groups, there's on more thing to remember: don't assume that a group will fail without one of these. I've been in many groups where we did just fine without a primary healer or without a real tank (generally mentioned as the most important group roles). It's challenging, but if you can't find the classes you need, go without them! You might have one of the best times in your gaming career because you barely pulled off that tough quest with a creative group, and make some new great friends in the process.
Everything you need to group you learned in Kindergarten
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The biggest thing to remember when you're playing with a group is to have fun and be nice. These are real people you're playing with, not NPCs, so treat them with respect and don't be greedy. Being rude and selfish is a sure-fire way not to get invited into a group next time, and you never know who's friends with who. The golden rule you learned in kindergarten still applies here, so treat people as you'd like to be treated. After all... there are a limited number of people on the server and plenty of spaces on everyone's ignore list.
The need/greed/pass rolling system that's coming with Shores of Evendim will help to get gear to the people who need it. Only roll need on an item that you will actually use. Needing the cash from an item sale is generally not considered "needing" an item by the community, so keep that in mind. You don't want to be labled as a ninja-looter (someone who takes items for themselves out of greed when they didn't rightfully win them according to the group).
Again, have fun! One of the best parts of an MMORPG is just chatting and goofing off with people, whether you do it in kinship chat, fellowship chat, or one of the other chat channels. Take some time to use emotes, ask questions, make jokes, and talk about whatever. Most people like the opportunity to chat-- that's why they're playing a social game. The secret to having a great time in an MMO is having friends to play with, and the best way to make them is to group and talk with people. You never know when a good conversation or a gracious pass on a dropped item might turn into a kinship invite or another group next time.
With an understanding of these grouping basics, you're ready to get out there and start socializing! Next, we'll be discussing one of the things that makes LoTRO such an interesting game: earning titles and deeds.
(Continue to Part 6: Titles, Traits, and Deeds )
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