SWToR is ultimately a Social game. It aside from Questing and grind leans heavily on group play, especially at lvl 50.

in group play 3 player roles come up in a holy trinity of sorts: The tank, The healer and the DPS. Tanks soak the brunt of a monsters anger and takes heavy hits that would flatten a non-sturdy player. Healers will heal; they keep the tank topped off to take more punches to the face and keep nikung dps alive to whittle the boss down.

And the Dps are usually what kills a creature off, all while its distracted by the tank.

 

Its a great system, teamwork can be a whole lot of fun.

But in order for teamwork to flourish, we need to embrace the fact that this is people, working with other people.

And people have different ways of behaving. some good..some bad.

Here is a guide to my view on behaving in a group, in order for it to succeed and down that boss in the end, all while having fun.

Enjoy

 

 

Do your set role***

 

Do not demand tho play someones character for them, or badger them with tips they

do not want nor need. (unless they ask) its one thing to offer tips

if you see a struggling tank who may not know whereto go.

But lets get things very straight here - there are 3 roles in this game

Tank, Healer and DPS

play the role your class is intended, do not try to be one of the other classes.

More on this later.

 

 

Defer to the tank***

 

The tank is your meatshield, this big blob of pixels is the deciding factor wether

the beast will drop loot or eat your party for lunch.

All pulls and the general speed of the dungeon, is set by the tank. More often

than not you will find that people tend to look at the tank as the leader of the group.

Not entirely a bad mindset, since he is the man going first into all the skirmishes.

If the tank does not know the dungeon/flashpoint he should say so from the beginning.

EVERYONE should say so in the beginning, "hi guys, first time here". This alleviates ALOT

of problems that usually occur along the flashpoint or OP.

 

Let the tank get agro.

 

To many times we see that the jedi guardian does his leap into a mob cluster or a single target mob.

This is there the DPS guys usually get too cocky.

Try to refrain from the horribly bad habit of launching your highest damaging attack on a mob that the

tank has only had ½ a second attack time on. LEt the guy build a little agro first, and then unleash your fury

upon the poor mob. Too often we see FP groups handling mob clusters poorly due to this, the fight is just going all over the place, when in fact it should be a very easy centered fight, the tank builds his agro, and group unloads all their AOE attacks, quick easy and with no casualties.

So for crying out loud..let the tank build alittle agro before you go nuts. it will keep you alive and your tank and healer sane.

 

It should also be noted that u often encounter groups where there is different levels of mobs within the group.

FX it could be 2x Gold elite mobs or silver for that matter. and or 2-4 regular trashmobs, non-elites.

As a tank you should focus your attention on these elites first, build agro on them untill youve got their attention,

then focus on the trash mobs. This is the usual way for a tank to do things. and your healer will love you for it.

Main threat generation on elites, and use AOE threat to pick up the trash.

I urge you all to go read tanking guides, theres plenty outthere, EVEN if youre not a tank! go read them.

Understanding the other classes better will dramatically increase the understanding of your own.

 

Guarding***

Now, the tanks get a defensive option called Guard - this ability has been highly discussed among the forums

But heres my take on it.

 

The guarded player receives a flat 5% damage reduction and generates 25% less threat.

Some people see the damage reduction and immediately think of the healer.

5% is not enough to jusitfy wasting the 25% threat reduction on them.

Use it on a melee DPS player that is going to be fighting next to the boss.

Generally they will do the most DPS and are at the highest risk of pulling aggro onto themselves.

 

However, i do believe this ability is to be used situationally.

When groups encounter those big clusters of 5+ mobs, the tank should consider throwing the guard on the healer for a moment simply because of those 1-2 mobs that wont be hit or gain enough threat from tank, as soon as the healers starts healing tank, those 2 mobs run straight for the healer, having guard on the healer when encountering those clusters, can make the FP go much faster.

 

i know this part didnt have much to do with the subject of this post, but i thought it important anyway.

Protect the healer***

 

Being a healer in any MMO is one of the most unforgiving tasks ever created.

The amount of banter and flaming the healer gets when group wipes is just staggering.

"lets blame it on the healer" is the usual theme. Even tho 9 out of ten times its not the healers fault,

some one else screwed up somewhere.

The healer has a couple of things that he absolutely Loves, and absoluty hates and dispises.

One thing he loves, is a tank that knows his stuff, he LOVES a tank that pays attention to his healers HP bar,

and tries to keep his healer in camera view. He alse Loves when DPS roles actually do the job that means protecting the healer.

Often you will get these before mentioned mob cluster encounters,

now even the best of tanks dont always pick up all of the mobs in the group, chances are that 1-2 of the mobs will turn its attention on the healer as soon as tank recieves his heals.

As the healer usually stay in the back, tank may not notice if a melee mob runs towards the healer and starts bashing and gnawing on him.

This is where DPS roles should be awake and try to have an overview. I play a Gunslinger smuggler myself. and im allways very close to the healer and keep my eye on him. if a mob attacks him, im on that mob in an instant. if healer dies..I die! this is the teamwork that is needed to succeed.

so all you DPSers outthere, even tho its the tanks job, look at your healer now and then. is he okay?

 

The one thing that healers hate most however, is explain in the DPS part, so keep reading

 

DPS***

 

Damage classes, the most played class in nearly any MMO is and probably allways will be, the damage class.

All the big numbers, the damage, the destruction, the Crits and critchance..Glorious isnt it?

Well not allways...

As i promised in the last part, id explain the one thing healers hate the most.

Damage classes who think they can tank!. im gonna put alittle flame on the jedi sentinels and its equivalent

the Sith marauder. The reason i do so is because of personal experience from running FPs, that these guys love their force leap ability more than anything. i agree, its fun...looks freakin awesome and its action packed and hilarious! But my god does the healer hate that.

Not only has there been MANY many groups that have wiped because of this guy who pulls from the left when tank pulls from the right.

Standing the screaming "heal me!! HELP!!" and when he dies calls the healer a stupid moron..amazing..

let me say this as nicely as possible : as a dps...DONT F***ING EVER DO THAT!!!

its just bad playing and highrisk, puts pressure on all 3 other members and everyone is having a bad experience having you in their group.

Do your job as DPS, you wait till the tank pulls..give him a second to build agro..then go nuts on the non elites.

That is your main job, its very very simple and very difficult to screw up. And everybody is happy.

 

Learn how your damage class works, read guides, ask around. Learn how to do your stuff.

And make yourself an example of that class, give it a good rep for the others.

Healer***

Your job is to heal. Just heal. Odds are you won't be able to juggle healing and attacking at the same time,

and no one is asking you to try. The DPS can handle that. Focus on healing,

even if you have time and energy to spare. When the poo hits the fan, you'll be thankful you were patient.

The key to saving groups is priority. As much as we'd like to heal everyone, we won't always be able to.

The tank is your top priority - he stays alive at all costs.

Then it's you (the healer), and lastly the DPS (typically melee before ranged).

If a DPS or two goes down in fire, it's regrettable, but it's not a wipe. If the tank goes down, everyone is in trouble.

As i said earlier, the role of healing is very unforgiving, alot of players just dont grasp this priority prospect, so when you have to focus on that tank, even tho you know the dps player is going down, often the healers will find themselves victims of all sorts of verbal abuse when fight is over. Dont let it go to your head, ignore these comments, if you didnt wipe, you did it right.

 

Say hello***

 

Be social! Some groups are just stone quiet, but some once a conversation has started can make what could be a boring run into a fun filled entertaining ride.

Sometimes group chemistry can save what would have been a terrible wipe fest.

 

Say a party member is feared by a mob into a deep pit making them non resurrectable.

A funny outlook can make the difference between a rage quit of all party members to the group cracking

jokes at the event and pushing on. And yes this did happen to me. During a server lag spike...

Now keep in mind your group. Unless you are amongst close friends/guildies that accept such humor,

keep the jokes PG unless the group is open to that. Nothing like joining a pug and hearing a slew of racial/sexist/orientation ect. type jokes, only to find one or more members were offended.

Having members angry, uncomfortable, or just plain not wanting to be their due to someone putting their

foot in their mouth can and will affect group performance. In fact if you join a group and this is the standard banter,

call them out on it. If a group persists, leave. The beauty of the queue system is groups are a dime a dozen to find.

Also when you leave the group, say ty for a good run when its apropriate. if it was a crap run, i dont say it ofc.

But if it was smooth run with no wipes..thank people for it, wish them a good day. Make the game experience

fun for those around you, youll find you will get invited to groups when you are nice to people.

Combat looting***

 

This here is one of the main things that i think of when i hear the term Group etiquette.

When you fight 5 mobs, kill the first mob and he drops a green item. Most players just cant help themselves.

They loot it, and a Need/greed bar pops up in the middle of the screen.

this is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING!!

Not to mention dangerous for the teams efforts, simply because when you get a loot option for a sexy new blue item and it looks like you can use it. what happens is that most people lose focus on the battle, and start thinking really fast wether to need or greed on this thing.

Combat looting has caused ALOT of wipes in MMOs over the time..

Try to refrain from doing this.

 

Ninja looting***

These are the guys i hate more than anything in the world of gaming!!

my god it pisses me off when some smuggler needs on a saber or even worse, people needing on items for their

class, when they are allready wearing same item, or better. /RAGE!!!!

personally i instantly vote people who ninja loot.

It gives everyone a bad experience of the game..it gives the game ITSELF a bad rep!

"so how is that SWTOR game?" - - "it stinks!!! people ninja loot like maniacs, dont play it"

thats not good for anyone. Quit ninja looting!!

 

Buffs ***

Now Swtor is very simple when it comes to buffs.

u got 1 - and u dont have to target players to use it

when u see all 4 players in group in range at beginning of instance..hit the buff.

When a player dies and comes back..Hit the buff.

Simple...love it.

But heres some good etiqutte for you that will go along way of making SWTOR a happy place.

I practise this myself, and it often pays back.

When you downed the last boss and looting is overwith..

I buff again, refreshing peoples buffs for when they go leveling is something that people

absolutely LOVE. i encourage everyone to do this.

 

use the droid***

in many FPs - like hammer station as an example, there is a vendor right at the beginning.

USE THIS VENDOR! especially for repairs. many people join the FPs straight from mission areas, they should repair as the very first thing.

The droid also holds Stims and medpacks. i encourage you all to spend alil cash here if you dont have any stims in you bag. These buffs are quite beneficial and can mean the difference between success and wipe.

 

world bosses and looting***

 

Ive done a couple of world bosses now, and theres something very rotten in the old republic...

When boss goes down, and someone died. 2 things happens if youre out of range from the world boss when it dies ( no idea how far it acutally is. ) what happens is that you 1: dont get the achievement

and 2: you dont get to roll on the loot.

This is a game mechanicn that absolutely STINKS! hope they fix it soon.

 

Ninja looting is also a very very common use at these encounters.

SO! what i recommend here, is that the OPs leader swithc to master looter.

heres why - when the loot is standard round robin, someone allways has to right click to see whts inthere.

its simply irresistable. and i quite understand that but as mentioned, the guys out of range dont get to roll.

i find that VERY unfair. When the Leader uses master loot he is the only one able to loot, and so the fair minded

leader will wait till everyone is in range. Then and only then will he right click.

 

Now heres there trick, people tend to mistrust the master loot option. You shouldnt.

Theres actually a larger chance that master looter will give you the item fairly , than to rob all of it himself.

personally ive never seen master looters ninja in swtor, not yet anyway.

 

So what the Master looter then does..say theres a Belt that drops for Troopers - the leader will get the chat attention of the members.

Link the item, and ask people who can use it to roll - heres an example "allright Troopers do a /roll 100 for (awesome purple belt with pretty lights)"

And the troopers only will roll, leader will take notice of who wins. and simply grant the item to him.

This method lowers the ninja looting DRAMATICALY! and ensures that every man in group gets a fair shot at the loot.

 

Bosses ***

 

This reminds me...

Alot of times i see players with no knowledge of a boss encounter..they dont even ask how to beat him.

So this often results in a wipe..wich is ridiculously time consuming and annoying,.

if you encounter a boss you havent done before simple do a /p "guys, whats the tactics on this boss??"

and you will Never find that people insult you or anything.

youll get a quick short explanation and off you go,, Boss down!

 

 

 

End***

 

So, theres just some of the areas that i wanted to cover regarding etiquette. im sure theres more stuff to cover, feel free to write a commment and i may add this to the post.

like space tapping through convos in Black talon when all players have done it before. i might add that.

 

Anyway i hope you all enjoyed this article

later on i think ill track down and add some links for class guides.

Stay safe everyone - Force be with you !

i agree completly and this is how i do behave..everyone should read this one! geat job. as tank and healer player i learnt this **** on my skin and not always it was funny.

Overall pretty solid advice but I'd make a couple of suggestions:

- Healers can DPS. Not saying they should, but if I'm healing and everyone is topped off (or even just fairly healthy) I'll chuck out some damage rather than stand still. Its more engaging and more useful for the group.

- When you die, DON'T RELEASE!! In an Op releasing will lock you out until the fight is over, you won't get credit for the kill and you won't get loot. With a WB it'll take you out of range and unless you get back before the kill you won't get credit or loot. In a FP it tends to bug the boss out or you miss out on loot, rarely I've seen death zerging a boss in a FP as a viable strategy when the healer has DCed or quit though. If you die, wait until its a wipe before you release and you will get credit and loot if they manage to kill it without you.

also, pay attention when you are navigating so you don't pull like an ***.

pay attention to whether the group wants to full clear or not.

pay attention and don't let the convo timer run out.

pay attention or let us know that your intention is to not pay attention

SWToR is ultimately a Social game. It aside from Questing and grind leans heavily on group play, especially at lvl 50.

in group play 3 player roles come up in a holy trinity of sorts: The tank, The healer and the DPS. Tanks soak the brunt of a monsters anger and takes heavy hits that would flatten a non-sturdy player. Healers will heal; they keep the tank topped off to take more punches to the face and keep nikung dps alive to whittle the boss down.

And the Dps are usually what kills a creature off, all while its distracted by the tank.

 

Its a great system, teamwork can be a whole lot of fun.

But in order for teamwork to flourish, we need to embrace the fact that this is people, working with other people.

And people have different ways of behaving. some good..some bad.

Here is a guide to my view on behaving in a group, in order for it to succeed and down that boss in the end, all while having fun.

Enjoy

 

 

Do your set role***

 

Do not demand tho play someones character for them, or badger them with tips they

do not want nor need. (unless they ask) its one thing to offer tips

if you see a struggling tank who may not know whereto go.

But lets get things very straight here - there are 3 roles in this game

Tank, Healer and DPS

play the role your class is intended, do not try to be one of the other classes.

More on this later.

 

 

Defer to the tank***

 

The tank is your meatshield, this big blob of pixels is the deciding factor wether

the beast will drop loot or eat your party for lunch.

All pulls and the general speed of the dungeon, is set by the tank. More often

than not you will find that people tend to look at the tank as the leader of the group.

Not entirely a bad mindset, since he is the man going first into all the skirmishes.

If the tank does not know the dungeon/flashpoint he should say so from the beginning.

EVERYONE should say so in the beginning, "hi guys, first time here". This alleviates ALOT

of problems that usually occur along the flashpoint or OP.

 

Let the tank get agro.

 

To many times we see that the jedi guardian does his leap into a mob cluster or a single target mob.

This is there the DPS guys usually get too cocky.

Try to refrain from the horribly bad habit of launching your highest damaging attack on a mob that the

tank has only had ½ a second attack time on. LEt the guy build a little agro first, and then unleash your fury

upon the poor mob. Too often we see FP groups handling mob clusters poorly due to this, the fight is just going all over the place, when in fact it should be a very easy centered fight, the tank builds his agro, and group unloads all their AOE attacks, quick easy and with no casualties.

So for crying out loud..let the tank build alittle agro before you go nuts. it will keep you alive and your tank and healer sane.

 

It should also be noted that u often encounter groups where there is different levels of mobs within the group.

FX it could be 2x Gold elite mobs or silver for that matter. and or 2-4 regular trashmobs, non-elites.

As a tank you should focus your attention on these elites first, build agro on them untill youve got their attention,

then focus on the trash mobs. This is the usual way for a tank to do things. and your healer will love you for it.

Main threat generation on elites, and use AOE threat to pick up the trash.

I urge you all to go read tanking guides, theres plenty outthere, EVEN if youre not a tank! go read them.

Understanding the other classes better will dramatically increase the understanding of your own.

 

Guarding***

Now, the tanks get a defensive option called Guard - this ability has been highly discussed among the forums

But heres my take on it.

 

The guarded player receives a flat 5% damage reduction and generates 25% less threat.

Some people see the damage reduction and immediately think of the healer.

5% is not enough to jusitfy wasting the 25% threat reduction on them.

Use it on a melee DPS player that is going to be fighting next to the boss.

Generally they will do the most DPS and are at the highest risk of pulling aggro onto themselves.

 

However, i do believe this ability is to be used situationally.

When groups encounter those big clusters of 5+ mobs, the tank should consider throwing the guard on the healer for a moment simply because of those 1-2 mobs that wont be hit or gain enough threat from tank, as soon as the healers starts healing tank, those 2 mobs run straight for the healer, having guard on the healer when encountering those clusters, can make the FP go much faster.

 

i know this part didnt have much to do with the subject of this post, but i thought it important anyway.

Protect the healer***

 

Being a healer in any MMO is one of the most unforgiving tasks ever created.

The amount of banter and flaming the healer gets when group wipes is just staggering.

"lets blame it on the healer" is the usual theme. Even tho 9 out of ten times its not the healers fault,

some one else screwed up somewhere.

The healer has a couple of things that he absolutely Loves, and absoluty hates and dispises.

One thing he loves, is a tank that knows his stuff, he LOVES a tank that pays attention to his healers HP bar,

and tries to keep his healer in camera view. He alse Loves when DPS roles actually do the job that means protecting the healer.

Often you will get these before mentioned mob cluster encounters,

now even the best of tanks dont always pick up all of the mobs in the group, chances are that 1-2 of the mobs will turn its attention on the healer as soon as tank recieves his heals.

As the healer usually stay in the back, tank may not notice if a melee mob runs towards the healer and starts bashing and gnawing on him.

This is where DPS roles should be awake and try to have an overview. I play a Gunslinger smuggler myself. and im allways very close to the healer and keep my eye on him. if a mob attacks him, im on that mob in an instant. if healer dies..I die! this is the teamwork that is needed to succeed.

so all you DPSers outthere, even tho its the tanks job, look at your healer now and then. is he okay?

 

The one thing that healers hate most however, is explain in the DPS part, so keep reading

 

DPS***

 

Damage classes, the most played class in nearly any MMO is and probably allways will be, the damage class.

All the big numbers, the damage, the destruction, the Crits and critchance..Glorious isnt it?

Well not allways...

As i promised in the last part, id explain the one thing healers hate the most.

Damage classes who think they can tank!. im gonna put alittle flame on the jedi sentinels and its equivalent

the Sith marauder. The reason i do so is because of personal experience from running FPs, that these guys love their force leap ability more than anything. i agree, its fun...looks freakin awesome and its action packed and hilarious! But my god does the healer hate that.

Not only has there been MANY many groups that have wiped because of this guy who pulls from the left when tank pulls from the right.

Standing the screaming "heal me!! HELP!!" and when he dies calls the healer a stupid moron..amazing..

let me say this as nicely as possible : as a dps...DONT F***ING EVER DO THAT!!!

its just bad playing and highrisk, puts pressure on all 3 other members and everyone is having a bad experience having you in their group.

Do your job as DPS, you wait till the tank pulls..give him a second to build agro..then go nuts on the non elites.

That is your main job, its very very simple and very difficult to screw up. And everybody is happy.

 

Learn how your damage class works, read guides, ask around. Learn how to do your stuff.

And make yourself an example of that class, give it a good rep for the others.

Healer***

Your job is to heal. Just heal. Odds are you won't be able to juggle healing and attacking at the same time,

and no one is asking you to try. The DPS can handle that. Focus on healing,

even if you have time and energy to spare. When the poo hits the fan, you'll be thankful you were patient.

The key to saving groups is priority. As much as we'd like to heal everyone, we won't always be able to.

The tank is your top priority - he stays alive at all costs.

Then it's you (the healer), and lastly the DPS (typically melee before ranged).

If a DPS or two goes down in fire, it's regrettable, but it's not a wipe. If the tank goes down, everyone is in trouble.

As i said earlier, the role of healing is very unforgiving, alot of players just dont grasp this priority prospect, so when you have to focus on that tank, even tho you know the dps player is going down, often the healers will find themselves victims of all sorts of verbal abuse when fight is over. Dont let it go to your head, ignore these comments, if you didnt wipe, you did it right.

 

Say hello***

 

Be social! Some groups are just stone quiet, but some once a conversation has started can make what could be a boring run into a fun filled entertaining ride.

Sometimes group chemistry can save what would have been a terrible wipe fest.

 

Say a party member is feared by a mob into a deep pit making them non resurrectable.

A funny outlook can make the difference between a rage quit of all party members to the group cracking

jokes at the event and pushing on. And yes this did happen to me. During a server lag spike...

Now keep in mind your group. Unless you are amongst close friends/guildies that accept such humor,

keep the jokes PG unless the group is open to that. Nothing like joining a pug and hearing a slew of racial/sexist/orientation ect. type jokes, only to find one or more members were offended.

Having members angry, uncomfortable, or just plain not wanting to be their due to someone putting their

foot in their mouth can and will affect group performance. In fact if you join a group and this is the standard banter,

call them out on it. If a group persists, leave. The beauty of the queue system is groups are a dime a dozen to find.

Also when you leave the group, say ty for a good run when its apropriate. if it was a crap run, i dont say it ofc.

But if it was smooth run with no wipes..thank people for it, wish them a good day. Make the game experience

fun for those around you, youll find you will get invited to groups when you are nice to people.

Combat looting***

 

This here is one of the main things that i think of when i hear the term Group etiquette.

When you fight 5 mobs, kill the first mob and he drops a green item. Most players just cant help themselves.

They loot it, and a Need/greed bar pops up in the middle of the screen.

this is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING!!

Not to mention dangerous for the teams efforts, simply because when you get a loot option for a sexy new blue item and it looks like you can use it. what happens is that most people lose focus on the battle, and start thinking really fast wether to need or greed on this thing.

Combat looting has caused ALOT of wipes in MMOs over the time..

Try to refrain from doing this.

 

Ninja looting***

These are the guys i hate more than anything in the world of gaming!!

my god it pisses me off when some smuggler needs on a saber or even worse, people needing on items for their

class, when they are allready wearing same item, or better. /RAGE!!!!

personally i instantly vote people who ninja loot.

It gives everyone a bad experience of the game..it gives the game ITSELF a bad rep!

"so how is that SWTOR game?" - - "it stinks!!! people ninja loot like maniacs, dont play it"

thats not good for anyone. Quit ninja looting!!

 

Buffs ***

Now Swtor is very simple when it comes to buffs.

u got 1 - and u dont have to target players to use it

when u see all 4 players in group in range at beginning of instance..hit the buff.

When a player dies and comes back..Hit the buff.

Simple...love it.

But heres some good etiqutte for you that will go along way of making SWTOR a happy place.

I practise this myself, and it often pays back.

When you downed the last boss and looting is overwith..

I buff again, refreshing peoples buffs for when they go leveling is something that people

absolutely LOVE. i encourage everyone to do this.

 

use the droid***

in many FPs - like hammer station as an example, there is a vendor right at the beginning.

USE THIS VENDOR! especially for repairs. many people join the FPs straight from mission areas, they should repair as the very first thing.

The droid also holds Stims and medpacks. i encourage you all to spend alil cash here if you dont have any stims in you bag. These buffs are quite beneficial and can mean the difference between success and wipe.

 

world bosses and looting***

 

Ive done a couple of world bosses now, and theres something very rotten in the old republic...

When boss goes down, and someone died. 2 things happens if youre out of range from the world boss when it dies ( no idea how far it acutally is. ) what happens is that you 1: dont get the achievement

and 2: you dont get to roll on the loot.

This is a game mechanicn that absolutely STINKS! hope they fix it soon.

 

Ninja looting is also a very very common use at these encounters.

SO! what i recommend here, is that the OPs leader swithc to master looter.

heres why - when the loot is standard round robin, someone allways has to right click to see whts inthere.

its simply irresistable. and i quite understand that but as mentioned, the guys out of range dont get to roll.

i find that VERY unfair. When the Leader uses master loot he is the only one able to loot, and so the fair minded

leader will wait till everyone is in range. Then and only then will he right click.

 

Now heres there trick, people tend to mistrust the master loot option. You shouldnt.

Theres actually a larger chance that master looter will give you the item fairly , than to rob all of it himself.

personally ive never seen master looters ninja in swtor, not yet anyway.

 

So what the Master looter then does..say theres a Belt that drops for Troopers - the leader will get the chat attention of the members.

Link the item, and ask people who can use it to roll - heres an example "allright Troopers do a /roll 100 for (awesome purple belt with pretty lights)"

And the troopers only will roll, leader will take notice of who wins. and simply grant the item to him.

This method lowers the ninja looting DRAMATICALY! and ensures that every man in group gets a fair shot at the loot.

 

Bosses ***

 

This reminds me...

Alot of times i see players with no knowledge of a boss encounter..they dont even ask how to beat him.

So this often results in a wipe..wich is ridiculously time consuming and annoying,.

if you encounter a boss you havent done before simple do a /p "guys, whats the tactics on this boss??"

and you will Never find that people insult you or anything.

youll get a quick short explanation and off you go,, Boss down!

 

 

 

End***

 

So, theres just some of the areas that i wanted to cover regarding etiquette. im sure theres more stuff to cover, feel free to write a commment and i may add this to the post.

like space tapping through convos in Black talon when all players have done it before. i might add that.

 

Anyway i hope you all enjoyed this article

later on i think ill track down and add some links for class guides.

Stay safe everyone - Force be with you !

 

On the set roles thing, while I was lvling my Sentinel I joined a pug group (the FP whereyou find Revan) and everything was cool till we were whiping on every boss 6-7 times because the tank seemed to just be dieing all the time. I thought it was the healer but he managed to heal me and the other dps through the cyclops boss so I ruled that out. I turned my attention to the tank and noticed how quishy he was so I inspected his gear and saw that everything on him was power/surge with maybe one peice that had something to def mitigation. So I explained to him(rather politely) that he needs to tweak his gear so it mitigates towards def. His response was "I have heavy armor." (*** is that?) So I blow it off we get to the final boss and whipe probably... 13 times? Finally I just told him he needs to seriously get with the program on the tanking bit because going into flashpoints with the wrong gear and getting two shotted by bosses is ridiculous. He left in a huff and basically told me to screw myself.

 

The point here, it is way ruder to go into a FP not knowing what you are doing and causing people to put up with bs for 3 hours, then it is to point out what they are doing wrong. Criticism breeds better gamers. There's a line to cross, but people need to hear when they are doing something wrong that will negatively effect them through their entire progression, especially in a group setting, regardless if they asked or not.

Overall fairly good write up...

Healer***

Your job is to heal. Just heal. Odds are you won't be able to juggle healing and attacking at the same time,

and no one is asking you to try. The DPS can handle that. Focus on healing,

even if you have time and energy to spare. When the poo hits the fan, you'll be thankful you were patient.!

 

I think this would be better stress towards fresh 50's, however as a healer learns their role and gears up, this suggestion no longer holds water. In HM TfB my guild ask the healers to dps especially on operator IX, Most of the time on the trash pull in the cave I am either #1 or #2 on dps with my sawbones. I know my class, I know the instances and I know to always keep either energy or coolhead held in reserve.

 

I am so over geared for HM FP that the last time I did directive 7 the only heal I used was diagnosis scan while dropping flyby every time it came off cooldown. There were not wipes or even deaths. So while I would tend to agree with you and I do at time concentrate solo on healing when the instances or the group requires it, for the most part in any hard mode flashpoint, I can do both as a asset to the group.

Edited March 18, 2013 by mikebevo

#bump. great post. and much needed. I hadnt really done FP's that much until the last 6 months and i have now seen all of the examples of BAD etiquette listed in your post as well as many more. and while this information might be greeted by a yawn by established players because it is standard behaviour across the MMO genre, sometimes people are NEW to something so need to have it stated clearly. otherwise they just piece together their own concept of etiquette from their experience without discussion.

 

it DOES happen quite often purely because many players don't use or know about the resources open to them. While Dulfy.net isnt perfect it gave me an idea of the boss mechanics so i didnt have to go into any of those fights cold. So i knew what i was doing and i didnt disadvantage the rest of the group. simple

 

One good example of how it can be annoying: fighting General Ortol on Cademimu, the tank and other dps didnt know the fight so got killed straight away as they were standing on the wrong grates (despite warnings) so i (mara dps) had to spend 10-12 minutes pummelling away at him on my own while the healer kept me alive while they both looked on and had a little chat. Then the other dps ninja'd a marauder lightsaber and chest piece despite me doing all the work.

 

Most of its common sense and courtesy and makes a BIG difference to everyones experience. keep it up

"when you die- Dont release!!!" i definately for got that one!! dammit

 

thanks for all your comments guys - now i completely agree the comments about how healers CAN do damage when everyone is topped off. i do it myself tbh. BUT, i know how to heal, i Know how to do group stuff, simply because ive been doing it for years in various MMOs. However i see alot of new players comming into this game who has absolutely no freakin clue about what theyre doing. This post is mostly directed at these players.

i feel my post was designed to give new players some ground rules about how to get a group working succesfully together.

I should perhaps have been more clear about that in the introduction

I agree with pretty much everything up there and it is typically the way I play.

 

I mainly do DPS just because I play to have fun and relax - healing and tanking are a touch too stressful for me to do regularly.

 

Maybe I've just had really good luck with groups, but I haven't run into a whole lot of problems - though playing "save the healer" or has gotten me grief from tanks every now and again. By which I mean: some trash B-lines for the healer, I'll AOE the hell out of them and either kill 'em or get them on me. I'm not trying to tank - I'm trying to let the healer do his job minus pushback. Same deal if a silver or higher breaks off and tank isn't trying to get them back or doesn't see them. I won't last very long even with defensive CDs and armor, but will last longer than most healers.

 

Tend to get grief over unintentional aggro theft as well - what can I say? When the stars align and all my procs are running like a Swiss watch, I can do some decent damage pretty darn fast, especially with high crit chance and high surge on my core attacks which I use A LOT. It's not intentional

Ok im completely going to say DONT, Shield the Melee DPS next to the boss. Heres the reasoning.

 

1. Healers build a crap ton of threat. I think thats cut and dry enough.

 

2. Healers dont have alot of attacks to defend with.

 

3. Healers DO have some defencive buffs (depending on class) BUT those will not keep the healer alive.

 

4. As a lvl 50 Merc Healer i have always been shielded and i dont want it to change.

You missed most imporant piece of whole issue - if you have problem with something someone else is doing - say it, and be open for discussion.

 

While what you've wrote here is more or less fine and true, it's not one and only rule to be obeyed by everyone. It's only things you personally have problem with. Each person has his own opinion, and some are more willing than other to see reason. For example, you might not like someone breaking CC with AoE, but maybe your group really can deal without CC just fine. Speak, discuss, and if neither of you can accept opinion of other one, best let rest of group decide or change group.

Ok im completely going to say DONT, Shield the Melee DPS next to the boss. Heres the reasoning.

 

1. Healers build a crap ton of threat. I think thats cut and dry enough.

 

No, they don't. They generate the least threat. The only reason that you are being attacked by mobs is because neither the tank nor the dds attacked said mob so the only threat he gets it that little amount generated by your heals.

So even when you get guard NOTHING is gonna change. Sure, you generate even less threat, but you are still going to get attacked either way. Because the problem is not you generating so much threat is that on one is picking up the mob. Guard isn't going to change that. Which is why in most cases guard on a heal is pretty useless, especially if the dds know what they are supposed to do. Whereas yes it can happen that a dd pulls off the tank and if he is unlucky the tank's taunt is on CD and can't do anything about it so the dd needs to tank for a few secs which is much more work for you because dds can't take much.

It's really just in your best interest not to have guard in most cases.

Also a 50 merc, and I'd rather have the marauder guarded, given a choice. If everyone is doing their job, the healer shouldn't be picking up much aggro.

 

I've actually been yelled at for NOT releasing... even though I know full well that me running back in would reset the boss (Athiss, anyone?) *sign* can't win...

 

The only things I would add is to the occasional ToaMs you get (Tank on a Mission)... I get that you want to get through the FP as fast as possible, and that we really have enough gear to not worry about cc's... But make sure your healer is following you to the next group and not still using his OOC heal to bleed heat off from having to max it... The 2nd thing (for ALL classes) is your OOC heal... use it, love it - why should your poor healer deplete reserves to top you guys off just to either have to stand and use it himself anyway, or have you guys go on before they're ready...?

What Abokado said. Guard the best MDPS or RDPS if no melee. Throwing guard on the healer is the surest sign that you are a noob tank or don't really understand how agro and guard works in PVE. Healers draw agro from mobs with an empty agro table, not the ones being beat on. Guard (by reducing threat) will not help healers as they are the only one on the agro table of the mobs attacking them. The 5% damage reduction is trivial and the 50% damage redirect to the tank works only in PVP. Just guard the DPS so they are not pulling mobs off the tank. A good tank will be sure to tag or AOE each of the mobs that are not CCed so the healer stays safe.

 

On more point to mention on etiquette, is it really necessary to quote the OPs when it is a mile long? Just quote the recant parts and not 20 paragraphs. (ya I know, it's supposed to be etiquette about FPs and not the forums but it needed to be said )

How the heck can you write an etiquette guide about the LFG without mentioning spacebar and trash/boss skipping?

 

Spacebar and skipping trash are the norm for all hard modes. If you are not spacebarring in a hard mode, that is your right, but you're being a jerk. In my view it is impolite to insist on spacebar or skipping in a story mode.

This post is one of the best and most productive GUIDE i have read about this subject. And its obvious purpose is to make flashpoints etc work better and be more enjoyable for everyone involved. I think that is and should be the highest priority for all players playing a multiplayer online game.

Great read, the few things I can add are this. (From a sorc point of view)

 

1) Dont guard me as a healer, unless you whisper me and ask me if I think that the dps are not handling aggro properly. Most encounters I can handle my aggro easily. If 1 mob is on me I can either wipe threat or I can cc it. If multiple mobs are on me, that just means something is not working properly because the order of shield/hot and then waiting for aggro to build before using 2nd hot, should give plenty of time for aggro. If it hasnt, that means either a mob wasnt spotted or people are just doing things wrong. Healers almost never actually pull aggro, there are some mobs that have random attacks not based on threat, but generally a healer will not out threat dps/tanks.

 

2) If you are a dps and you pull a mob off me, you will be the first dps healed every time. Why? Because I can heal 3 people as long as I am clean, as soon as mobs are banging on me, then Im being stunned, my rolls are being messed up and Im having to heal myself, to then try and heal others.

 

3) Try and burn weakest to strongest. The more mobs that are dead, the less damage, the less healing.

 

4) Pay attention to CC. Use CC. Understand CC. A lot of nonsense battles can be easily won if you just CC 1 or 2 guys to start.

OP - great post, great advice and a nice effort!

 

However, it would have been more appropriate for any given MMO 10 years ago.

SWTOR doesn't have a community and the modern MMO player does not care about etiquette, just him/herself.

Ninja looting***

These are the guys i hate more than anything in the world of gaming!!

my god it pisses me off when some smuggler needs on a saber or even worse, people needing on items for their

class, when they are allready wearing same item, or better. /RAGE!!!!

personally i instantly vote people who ninja loot.

It gives everyone a bad experience of the game..it gives the game ITSELF a bad rep!

"so how is that SWTOR game?" - - "it stinks!!! people ninja loot like maniacs, dont play it"

thats not good for anyone. Quit ninja looting!!

 

I'll generally speaking agree with most of what you said. However, I have no problem with me or anyone else needing on a modable item that has mods they can use for their class.

 

For example, chest piece drops with L40 mods I can use. I already have L40 mods in my chest piece. But I have L32 mods in my legs. No reason to not need on the chest piece, rip the mods out and upgrade the legs. On my alts I grab modable social armor as early as I can for my toons and then just upgrade the mods. To me a chest piece, a leg, a head piece etc are all the same. They are a source of mods.

 

The rest of what you said I'll agree with for the most part. Especially the part about letting tanks get aggro.

 

I could also quibble about healers just healing. Especially when I'm leveling up a healer alt, I'm generally able to keep the tank and the party healed, while still doing more than my fair share of the DPS. But that's because I try to keep my gear up to date (see comment about mods above).

 

Some other comments to add to your guide:

1. Aforementioned comment about spacebar and skipping conversations.

2. Wear level appropriate gear. Nothing ticks me off more than people being in FPs with gear way too far below level. If you're in a L50 HM FP with L23 green relics you shouldn't be there. If you're L35 and you have no relic or L12 greed implants you need to update your gear. It's not fair to your fellow players to expect them to just carry you through.

3. Addendum to "Do your role". The Group Finder has a mechanic in it where if your AC can Heal/Tank/DPS and there is no Heal/Tank/DPS it will assign you to Heal/Tank/DPS even if you don't select that role. So check your role before you accept. If you are not willing to do that role don't accept. If you do accept do that role. If you popped queue as a DPS then DPS don't decide you are heal spec and the game made a mistake so you are just going to heal anyway.

4. Respect your other players. Don't go AFK for 20 minutes. Don't trash talk them.

Great post OP. would be great if everyone saw this lol.

As a Swtor player for the last 10 months, I have had the privelidge of meeting many great folks, and some that weren't so great. A few things I would add.

 

1. As a tank, guard whoever u want before first pull. After first couple of pulls, switch it to whoever generates the most threat. Also. Watch your healers health bar. U have other threat generators than your taunts. On my 50 assassin tank, I open trash pulls with overload. ((only if it won't break cc)). Then single taunt the strongest mob, wait 5 sec, area taunt. If fight lasts longer, I re-use overload, single taunt, shock ((this generates a ton of threat)), and force pull for distant mobs that like to shoot at healer. ((also, force speed isn't just for speeding up, it's great for grabbing that pesky healer killer when pull is on cd)). Other tank classes can all keep aggro as well, it's just about knowing your class.

 

2. As dps, DONT break cc or try to tank. Let tank build aggro, then go in. If you are gaining aggro, please use your threat drop, your healer will love you. Sent/Mara are the worst for aggro stealing. On my 50 Mara, if my health drops below 50%, I pop force camo, it drops threat instantly, and is great, but I only see a few plp use it. And if your group is struggling,, all near death, and the healer is burning heals as fast as possible on tank, and u die, but tank wins the fight,, for heavens sake don't cuss out the healer, he just saved the group from wiping by keeping tank alive. This is the main reason that the ignore list on my 50 commando healer is so big, and why a lot of healers/tanks only run with friends and guilds. Dont blame the tank/healer for a wipe that a dps caused by stealing aggro from tank, ignoring cc and healer health bar, refusing to use aggro dump, and wasting time screaming for a heal when you should have been dps-ing your heart out.

If the healer is any good, he will throw a heal your way, once ((and only after)) the tank and himself are safe.

 

3.

I remember an old saying from city of heroes, which was roughly

"If a tanker dies, it's the defenders fault

If a defender dies, it's the tankers fault

If a blaster dies, it's their own fault."

Great guide, lets share knowledge with those who don't know

 

<>

SWTOR doesn't have a community and the modern MMO player does not care about etiquette, just him/herself.

 

As a healer, you have the "power" to educate these ones.. If i see a DPS (specially the smashers) going out of control, he will just die. Accidents and mistakes do happen, but a DPS feeling like a god and only thinking about him/herself, gets some nice education from my side. If he cries, its his/her problem.

 

Normally, i can keep everyone alive and put out some DPS as well, but the focus will always be on the tank to keep alive (and me as well).

I remember an old saying from city of heroes, which was roughly

"If a tanker dies, it's the defenders fault

If a defender dies, it's the tankers fault

If a blaster dies, it's their own fault."

I'm so sick of this quote. There are so many instances where it's not true that it's just plain misleading.

I'm so sick of this quote. There are so many instances where it's not true that it's just plain misleading.

 

Actually, it seems to have a good deal of basis to it.

 

If the tank is the last one standing, they've failed, because they weren't keeping enough damage focused on them instead of the others.

 

If the healer is the last one standing, they've failed, because their healing was not up to scratch. And tanks tend to have the abilities that give the healers an opportunity to do their job.

 

Damage dealers should show good judgement, and if they get the attention of something, it should be something that they'll be killing in short order. If they pulled aggro from something they couldn't handle, it's hardly the tank's or healer's fault, isn't it?

 

And while you're right that there are a lot of different situations where it's not true, I'd think that people would have enough good sense to know that if the healer stands in the AoE of doom, it's hardly the fault of the tank.

 

On the other hand, it did come from a very different MMO, with double the average group size and a very different definition of Tank (as in, one that doesn't need a healer to survive)

all in all a good set, The only thing I take any issue with is defaulting to defer to the tank.

 

it's a team effort, while the tank is a valuable member of the team that does not by default put him in charge.

 

Now in my raids I am the main healer, and my main tank is my trusted right hand. If he says it the raid does it.

 

But he has earned that trust from all of us.