Welcome!

I am very frustrated that many groups that I have been on do not know how to work as a team. Some are very experienced and everything works like clockwork, but unfortunately in my experience, I have seen many teams that just aren't in the know.

So instead of flaming them (which would not be constructive) I would like to share some tips of how to have an effective team. I have been a participant in 3 MMO's. I think many here are new to this concept probably because being a part of the Star Wars galaxy is motivation enough to try their first MMO.

I hope others are willing to share as I am. Please feel free to do so and again, I really hope this helps someone and make team exp'ing as enjoyable as it is beneficial. This guide is under the assumption that you are hunting/fighting high level mobs.


Travel Tips

-Use /follow.

This is the easiest way to keep up with your team. Many people leave teams because they are left behind, or don't want to wait for others.
(When targeting the leader of the team or who everyone else is following type: /follow)

-Wait for others

Some people are faster than others. This depends on your Terrain Negotiation skill and the type of weapon you are runing with. Be considerate. Master Scouts, wait on top of hills for others.

Another reason to wait: If others are far behind, and you make a drastic turn to avoid nasty mobs, the last people on the line may intersect a camp which defeats your purpose of avoiding mobs. Which brings me to the next tip:

-Run around mobs

Some mobs may be non aggressive to the leader, but this may not be the case for others. Your level, faction standings and camouflage will probably be different from others. No reason to start a train when it can be avoided. Even though the mobs may be green or white to you this may be misleading. Others may be lower level and being part of a team can influence the con of the mob.

-Communicate

If you have a mob on you and everyone seems to still be running shout, "Agrro" or say it in Group Chat. They wont help you if they dont know whats going on. Same thing for heals or just about any situation where you need others for assistance.

-Random Mobs Killing

Most of the time it ends up aggroing too many at a time and just slows the team when they have to help you. Save your energy for the big game! Those small mobs are not worthy of your skills. =P

-Check Your Team Window

Periodically check your team window for anyone who needs help, in a fight or far behind. Someone can be in trouble, lost, incappitated or bleeding. It's easy to help them out when you know what is going on without them having to type it out for you. And the way GroupChat has been inconsistent lately, they may not be able to communicate at all!

-Use Waypoints

If you get lost ask someone for coords. If the coords are 2000, -1000, then type "/waypoint 2000 -1000" for a waypoint to be created for you. Don't ask for them to send the waypoint in the mail.

-Calling Pets

Please call your pets when you arrive at your destination or first site of a fight. Waiting for someone to get their stuck pets 100m away is annoying.

Combat Tips

-Let One Person Call the Targets

This reduces confusion in the team. Choose who will call the shots and assist.

Please, no "Eager Beavers." This is when someone takes it upon him/herself to attack who they want without the team knowing. Some people may not be ready to fight due to damage, incaps, bleeding, healing wounds or the team may decide to do something else. If you are this type of person don't expect back up. You will end up fighting alone.

-Use /assist

The easiest way to start your attack in a team is using /assist. You don't want to target the wrong one and end up fighting more mobs than you have to. If the caller calls one target and accidentally attacks another, it won't make a difference if the entire team is on /assist. Target someone in your team that is calling the targets and type: /assist

Experienced team players will make an assist for the leader, or whoever will call the targets. Say the caller/puller is named Mr-X. Go and make a custom macro: /assist Mr-X. Then put it in your toolbar and you are set!

-Kill The Weakest First (part 1)

If there are multiple aggros or on your team, or if attacking one will create multiple aggros, target the weakest first. The strategy here is, the faster you can cut down the numbers of mobs attacking your team, the better your team has a chance to survive. Killing (or planning to kill) the weakest will take the shortest time for you team to have better odds.

(Note: In PVP I believe the opposite. Killing the biggest threat in PVP teams leaves you with a lot of weak players. You never know what the "big shot" in the team is capable of. This does not include healers. They should die first. =P )

-Kill The Weakest First (part 2)

Say you team is in a situation where it seems that everyone is attacking a different mob and you don't know who to help, who to target or where to run to. Keep your head, and fight. Just fight smart.

If you are not attacking, target toggle your attackers with the corresponding key. Find out which one is closest to dying. Kill that one. This is the same strategy as part one, the faster your can deplete their numbers, the better your odds.

If you are already attacking and see that others are also being attacked, make sure you are shooting the weaker of the mobs. If not, switch targets. Be aware of what your team is doing and who they are fighting.

Extra Tip: Targeting
If you are completely surrounded by mobs that are attacking and mobs that are not attacking and you want to "reset" and start targeting the closest and work your way outwards... Target Yourself First. When you press the Target Toggle key again, it will start from who is closest to you!

-Kill The Weakest First (part 3)

If the team is attacking one mob, and you get attacked by another in mid-fight, KEEP ATTACKING THE FIRST TARGET! I can understand that you want to protect yourself, but you will get help faster if you help finish the first job the team started.

If you attack your attacker and not the primary target, it will take longer for others to get to your attacker. In my experience it is very rare that a team switches the primary target for one that jumps in mid fight. People who do their own thing in teams gets ignored, eventually. Most of the time its not intentional, it just happens.

-Under Attack and Need Help!

As above, try to keep the first target. Along with that, do not run away from your team! Sure running seems to help defensively but there are many reasons why not to run all around the map.

1) People can't heal you if you are out of range. Ok, you're scared. So you run. Run in a small circle around your healer always staying in range of his/her heal radius. Many others have some healing abilities. Sometimes they don't tell the team untill someone needs healing.

2) People can't shoot what's not there. If you run in one direction long enough they will stop attacking. But what if you cannot last that long? Now the people that can help are not in range. Again run circles around your healer, if you don't know who the healer is, run circles around and between the team. Healers will heal you, combatants will attack, and they will all be in range to do so.

3) You may aggro other mobs in that camp or worse, a whole other camp.

-Target The Weakest HAM Bar

If you team is constantly targeting/damaging health bar the most, then target the body/health pool. If you do not have a special to do so, then use default attack or perhaps another weapon. In most cases the health bar will be hit more than others unless you are in a team of all snipers (mind pool) or carbineers (action pool).

It is true that you do get more exp for the damage you do, so this may be used only in emergencies due to people wanting to get the most damage out of the mob by using their best special which may not be damaging the targeted pool.

Other Team Tips

-Useful Skills

If you have low skilled to medium skilled character, get some skills that will help your team out like Medial or Entertainment Skills. Even though you do not want to become a Medic or Entertainer, get trained in these skills just in case no one in your team has these skills. If you have points to spend, SPEND THEM! They are not doing anything for you now, might as well put them to use. You will find opportunities to use them especially when you are in a team.

If you do not plan to be a medic or entertainer I don't recommend you spend money to raise those skills of those proffesions. Ask people and team members to train you. Hey! If its free, and you have loads of skill points not being used, do it! You help them out with apprentice points for training you as well.

When you run out of skill points, then be picky with the skills you want to have and sell back the ones you no longer need.

-Use Camps

If your team needs a few seconds to heal, and you need the Survival exp, drop a camp. Wounded people will swarm like flys to a flame. If you don't need Survival exp let others that do drop a camp or two.

If your team seems to be there for a while and looks like they will stay longer, disband your camp and drop a new one in the same place after a few mins. There is a maximum of exp points you receive per camp. Once it hits the max you won't get any more exp for it. Drop a new one every 5-15 mins (depending on how many people in your camp) so you will benefit from all the exp you can get.

If camps are slowing down your team, disband the camp to get them moving.

-Read the Manual

There is no excuse for not reading it. Nothing more annoying than someone that constantly asking questions that are written out in the manual.

-Droids as Tanks

If you are using your droid as a tank (tank = the one that takes the hits), and seem to still get attacked more often than your droid, DO NOT TEAM WITH IT. The mob will hardly ever attack you probably because it thinks you are not "with" your bot and treats you like a separate fight.

I do not recommend not teaming with troopers because you can heal them and if they die, you loose them. I am not a CH so I am not sure if this applies to tamed pets.

Extra Tip: Soloing With Your Droid

Your droid will NOT necessarily keep fighting the target you commanded to attack. Most of the time it will attack the last mob that attacked it. Example:

You have a rebel mission with 2 Stormtroopers. You command it to attack ST-1 but ST-2 steps in. You bot will STOP attackiing ST-1 and attack ST-2 since it is the last mob that attacked it. If you attack ST-1 there is a good chance that he will start attackiing you since your bot is attacking ST-2.

Best way to avoid attacks in this situation is wait. Command your droid to attack ST-1 and target ST-2 to see if he takes damage from your bot. If he does take damage that means your bot switched targets and it would be safer for you to attack ST-2.

Also, look at your full screen map (CTRL+M). If ST-2 dosen't even move or change direction, you know its safe to attack ST-1 after he starts taking damage from your bot.

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That's all i can think of at the moment. I really hope this helps people. If you wish to share and expand this guide I will be grateful because it will lead to much more enjoyable and beneficial groups.

Peace to all, and happy hunting!!