Thought I would write this as even some seasoned MMO players don't know it or ignore it.

The first thing you have to understand is the type of Character you are. There are 3 types, Tank, Healer, DPS (Damage per second). These characters, in a team, and working together, can defeat far larger and more powerful groups than themselves. They all have a job to do, explained below.

1) TANK- the Tank is designed to take damage. With the same Health he wil last twice as long as a DPS. The trade off being he doesn't do as much damge.

2) HEALER- The Healer is designed to heal the group, primarily the Tank, as he will be taking most of the damage.

3) DPS- The damage dealers of the group, designed to do the most damage of the 3 types.

NOTE- AGGRO. Another thing to consider is 'aggro'. This is a mechanic that the mob uses to determine which one of your group to attack.

Your job-

1) TANK- Your job is to get the group to attack you. The easiest way to make the group attack you (see 'aggro' above), is to get in first. Be the first one in your group to attack, and the mob will attack you right back. Don't worry about this, as you should have a healer behind you, keeping you alive!

Secondary to this, at higher levels, will be 'Taunts'. these are special abilities you can use to make sure the mob attacks you and not anyone else. Pay particular attention to protecting your healer, as he is the guy keeping you alive.

2) HEALER- Your job is to heal the group. Pay particular attention to your Tank, as he is the guy soaking up the damage from the mob.

When you get attacked, DON'T PANIC! Wait for your Tank to come and protect you. This is more difficult for the Tank if you're running around trying to flee someone who will just continue to hit you anyway. Heal yourself if necessary.

3) DPS- Your job is to clear the mob, but don't get attacked yourself. You must wait for the Tank to attack first! If you attack first, the mob will attack you, and you won't likely last very long, as you're not designed to take damage. That's the Tank's job.

Once the Tank goes in, gang up and do 1 at a time. Start at the weakest, and work your way towards the tougher members of the mob, and they will die faster.

So that's it. A basic guide to basic group combat not including Hard modes, operations, World Bosses and the like. Master this basic mechanic, and your group mates will be adding you to your friends lists and will more readily group with you in future, enhancing your enjoyment of the game. We're all on here to have fun, and it's more fun when our enemies are dying, and not us. Happy gaming.

Post = Generally covers the basics

Fayt = Approves

i mainly shy away from grouping up with others as i like to play solo most of the time

this is my first mmo and ive got to lev 39 mainly on my own.

recently ive been thinking about grouping up with others and your post has really helped me figure out the basics.

thanks

i mainly shy away from grouping up with others as i like to play solo most of the time

 

this is my first mmo and ive got to lev 39 mainly on my own.

 

recently ive been thinking about grouping up with others and your post has really helped me figure out the basics.

 

thanks

I understand completely.This is also my first MMO, and you can get all the way to the level cap running solo missions, so why bother grouping up?

Because your missing out on the most fun part of the game!

Wether it's the social aspect of grouping, the challenge of taking down powerful mobs, the loot you get from them which is immense, the satisfaction of teamwork, being in groups is far and away more fun than soloing. Give it a try, if you let people know your 'newb' status (new boy), as I did 6 months ago, the vast majority are more than happy to get you through it and explain your role during the mission. And we all mess things up occasionally, don't sweat it if you make mistakes.

As with life in general, sometime you meet people that aren't nice, but don't let the tiny minority hold you back, just add them to your ignore list and don't group with them again. Give it a blast and above all, have fun!

Yep, good idea - nice and basic and so completely taken for granted by more experienced players.

All new players should work out their role within a group stick to the basics outlined above, and remember:

- If you're the tank and you die then it was the healers fault

- If you're the healer and you die then it was the tank's fault

- If you're DPS and you die then it was your fault

Greetings ChrisRedmond!

We just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to create this overview of group combat!

We always love to see the community help each other!

Have a great day!

Hi Chris, thanks for the post. As you can see, there already have been a couple people which you have already helped. Coming from a MT (main tank) and healer, I just wanted to focus a bit more on the "Aggro" mechanic you were talking about in your post and to add a little something to help the dps not die.

NOTE- AGGRO. Another thing to consider is 'aggro'. This is a mechanic that the mob uses to determine which one of your group to attack.

Aggro is not the mechanic that the mob uses to determine which one is to be attacked. What you are referring about is Threat. Aggro is just another name for being attacked, Not the mechanic itself (Eg... I took aggro! Help!!!). The more threat someone has, the higher chance that person will be taking the aggro. Think of this mechanic as how angry you are making the mob. The more angry you make them, the more likely they are to attack you. The tank should have the highest threat on everything that the group is attacking. This is something that the DPS Needs to keep an eye on. What i mean by this is if the DPS starts seeing that the mob turns away from the tank and starts attacking them, they have built up enough threat for that mob to start ignoring the tank and turn to them instead. When this happens, they need to start slowing down on the attacking to reduce the ammount of threat they have OR if they have a way to remove threat completly (sort of like the Sentinel's force camoflage), they should be using that.

The second thing i wanted to touch on (and i have seen it more times than I can remember) is primarily for the DPS players out there. Please Please Please, if you do get attacked... Please do not run around like a chicken with its head cut off if or when you start getting attacked. In order for your groups healer to be able to heal you, 2 things are required to be present.

1) You must be within range of the healer - If you start to get attacked and run away trying to get away from that mob which is attacking you, you have to consider that you might be running out of range of your healer. If you get out of range, their heals will not be able to reach you and you are as good as dead

2) LOS (Line of sight) - You may be within the range of the healer but if you find yourself with a big pillar in the way blocking the line of sight of the healer, they will not be able to see you and then they cannot see you, they will not be able to heal you. So how to do avoid this? Easy, if you can see the healer, they can see you.

As an Avid Main tank player I do have this to add about the classic dynamics posted above.

In the Old Republic Tanks (at least a Guardian Tank) may have issues getting the aggro of every mob in a boss fight. Usually they have to focus to just hold the Boss and perhaps one of the other tougher Mobs. Taunts are limited and less powerful in this MMO than in many others.

So be aware when your DPSing. moving from weak to strong targets is very key, as well as focusing fire (everyone attacking the same target). By doing this you allow the tank to taunt and AoE and have an easier time building the Aggro.

Also best thing to do when in a group and things start to go badly in a fight, DON'T throw in the towel! Fight hard until the wipe is complete. You'd be surprised what you can accomplish when pushed. I was tanking a boss and our two DPS went down pretty quickly, but the healer kept working hard to heal me and while it took a long time for me to DPS down the boss, we eventually killed the boss. In a way it made it easier for us to manage the fight and me to keep aggro of the boss. Plus gave me an appreciation for the healer I grouped with.

im a bounty hunter merc going through the arsenal skill tree so in a group im guessing my slot in a group is dps.

when i finally pull my finger out and hunt for a group to play with the above comments will come in very handy

Great little guide and very useful additional comments.

I have played MMOs since the early days, and often get surprized as to how it is that these days, lots of players do not even wonder about group mechanics and just jump in.

I personally prefer to be either a healer or a tank. On my tank (my favourite by far) Guardian, I am stumped at times how players completely ingore the threat concept and just hurl in, wipe the whole group and then think they did a great job.

It is true. When you play your role well, you can handle a lot. Last night I was in a group when we had to do a really tough quest, with lots of adds. The first round ended up in a wipe, but when we gathered, reconsidered our strategy and we all stuck to our role more stricktly, we had a relatively easy time with the whole room.

This is really what makes these kind of games very fun. Granted, the Guardian has limited tools to be an effective tank, though if you improvise and the group is a bit patient, then you can hold aggro just fine.

Rule of thumb: let the tank go in, and give him about 5-10 secs to build threat, and only then start attacking and healing. Then you are off a much better start then when everyone just starts bashing from the beginning.

Have fun playing!

Fantastic guide Op!

It's very straightforward, and wets teh "tongue" so to speak on grouping I think it fills that role quite well. You could probably add a few more things in it and still keep it simple (which is probably your main goal).

On threat - As stated earlier, the clarification between threat (what the mob builds), and Aggro (when you have enough threat for the mob to want to whack you instead of the others), are two different things. easy to throw in there though.

On roles - I'd add the definition of DPS to your DPS description (which is otherwise great). It may be helpful for new players to know that it mean Damage Per Second. initially it was simply a way to determine how much damage your class was doing...but it quickly became an industry standard for defining the classes (and SPECS !!) that focus solely on dishing out the mayhem.

Plus, theres a few other things that I think , while still keeping things very basic, will help out a ton.

1) Marking - Sometimes a group member will put little markers above the heads of various mobs. These are often used to differentiate things like Kill order, who to CC (more on CC below), and in general...gives you a way of organizing that mess of uglies standing between you and that sweet phatz lewtz! If the person marking doesn't explain what each marker means at the start, you may want to ask. Often they will use the same markers for the same things, such as "kill the target reticule first, then the flame, then the blue shield, " etc. But for the most part, if a tank or healer marks mobs, they will tell you what their for. Learning to follow markers makes huge waves with other players, well worth the little extra focus it takes to keep track of them.

2) Crowd Control - or "You want me to do WHAT to that monster?"

As you level, you'll notice that your class (or classes, if you play a dozen or so like I do) will have a few skills that allow you to control mobs without having to damage them. sometimes you shock them, sometimes you stun them, or put them to sleep, or scare the wits out of them...each class has their own ways of Controlling a mob. It can help out a bit when your playing solo, but in a group they can become critical survival tools.

So when you get into a group, and someone asks kindly if the "Sorc can CC the mob with the Blue shield above his head", DONT PANIC! this is very normal. What they mean is they want you to use your "stunning" ability, which is often called CC, or Crowd Control. But keep in mind that they usually mean the long one...the classes that are known for their CC abilities will usually have a LONG CC (lasts 1 minute with a 45s-1m cooldown usually), and a SHORT CC (instant, but only works for a few seconds). save your short CC for surprises...use your long one when they ask you to CC.

But keep in mind that the job isn't done. once that mob is CC'ed, you need to watch it. the group expects you to continue to CC it (recast it when its CD is up) until they all eventually run over to give that Mob a smacking. so don't let it out of your sight. It feels like allot to do initially, but don't be worried. after a bit watching your CC becomes second nature.

4) Mob - usually refers to a single enemy. Originated from older MMO's where enemies would hang out in groups, or "mobs" of enemies (loose origination...there are a few variations of where it comes from). You'll hear this allot in groups. "hey Sorc, can you CC that Mob on the left?" Mob = 1 enemy. Mobs = more then one.

5) AoE - Nope it doesn't mean that the group is All Over Everything it's an acronym that means "Area Of Effect", and is used to describe spells that do damage to areas, able to hit many Mob's at once. They may do it in a circle, or they may do it in a cone shape in front of your character. Some may be centered where you want them to be (targeting the ground), some may be targeting a specific Mob, and hits the mobs around it. Doesn't matter really.

What you need to know is sometimes the group may not want anyone to "AoE this pull". It's usually because they are using CC on various mobs, and they don't want the CC to "break", in which case the mobs that was CC'ed will usually turn and attack the HEALER (this is bad. especially if your the healer). so pay particular attention to the group your fighting. If there's any that are controlled, don't use your AoE attacks.

Oh yeah...and avoid the bad stuff. May be Red, May be green, May Glow, may ask you if you want a drink...if its on the ground and the enemies put it there, for the most part its BAD and you should MOVE OUT OF IT. hopefully fast. Even if its not bad, moving out of something your not sure about is a good thing to do. Unless its your healers Kolto missle....but they'll chuckle at ya, and you'll figure it out fast