Submitted by sam on Mon, 06/21/2004 - 18:09.

Once you have gotten a party together, the basic battle plan goes something like this:



1) Identify the Enemy or Targets

The very first thing that your party needs to do is identify what you will be fighting. Sometimes this will be very specific enemies (for specific quest drops or due to specific party chemistry). Other times this will be more general difficulty ranges (VT, IT, etc.)



If you are all new to an area, then be prepared to do a lot of experimentation while you figure out which enemies you can and cannot take.

2) Find a Camp

You need to find an area where you can set up camp. The idea behind the camp is that it is a refuge, free from spawning monsters and other groups such that the party can rest and recouperate as well as attack the enemy as needed. The camp needs to be far enough away from other groups that their attacks, communications, or whatever does not interfere with your party's functioning. Sometimes this is hard to come by and you must take what you can get.



The camp also needs to be close enough to the enemies you will be hunting that they can be pulled individually back to camp, but far enough from the enemies that fighting them one at a time will not attract more of them.



It is also very useful if the camp is relatively near someplace to zone in emergencies. If you are off in the farthest corner from the zone, then there is a very high likelihood that you will not survive if you have to flee.

3) Pick a puller

The puller's job is to scout out there area, identifying enemies, and then targetting a single enemy to bring back to camp. The ideal situation is to fight one enemy at a time, so the puller needs to be someone who can pull individual enemies without dragging more with them.



Thieves and Rangers make ideal pullers, as they have bows and high evasion, but realistically anyone can be a puller, as pulling is really more of an art than a skill.

4) Pick a tank, and define roles

The tank should be someone with a high defense. Ideally, they should be the person with the highest defense and/or the highest HP (or some amalgam of the two). The tank also has to be someone with the ability to provoke the enemy (somehow, more on this later).



Everyone else needs to know their roles as well. If you have someone else who is a backup tank, they need to know that they need to provoke the enemy when the main tank's health gets too low. If you have someone who is a damage dealer, they need to know (or perhaps orchestrate) things like skillchains and ability limits.

5) Puller gets enemy

Once the basic roles have been defined, the puller goes out to find the enemy. When they have found the enemy, they generally announce it on group chat and check if people are ready for the pull. If they have confirmation that they group is ready (or, if they can just tell the group is ready) they then pull the enemy. This should be accompanied by some sort of a sound call and an announcement on party chat that the enemy is incoming.



The puller then brings the enemy back to camp, trying to avoid any other enemies that may link and follow.

6) Party devastates the enemy

When the enemy is back at camp (and there are no links) the party should devastate the enemy. The tank needs to keep the enemy occupied on them while the healer keeps them alive. The rest of the party needs to do whatever is necessary to kill the enemy. Skillchains are always a plus.

7) Heal

After the enemy has been killed, the party typically will heal. This could entail healers curing the teammates or resting to restore MP.



Often what you will want is to heal the puller first so they can run back out and find the next prey.

8) Rinse, and repeat

The puller goes back out for the next enemy, jumping us back to step 5 and we repeat over and over.