Guild Wars 2

I would really like to know for sure…..and I’m mainly talking about Shadow of Behemoth, Elemental and such, or just plain farming.

Before the mega server thing. Rarely did someone ask to be in group.

Now its common……and so its got me to wondering.

My question…….is there or not a advantage to being in a group.

I’ve looked around many times and there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer to this.

Some say if in a group and you only get one or no tags. A group will make up for that.

Maybe my memory fails me, but I could swear in the beginning wiki said being in group gives you better drops….or at least the chance of them.

Can someone settle this once and for all.

On a side note and a suggestion. I think it would be better that groups get better drops. It promotes what Anet wants….group participation.

This is my personal experience.

Usually if I tag something one or two times, I don’t get credit for kills and events. If I’m in a group and my group is already at an event and I show up right at the very end, I get credit when I just hit a couple of times.

It’s circumstantial at best, but I’m pretty sure that the threshold of damage you need to get to qualify for drops is lower when you’re in a group.

btw, prior to the megaserver, people used to group at big events all the time, like if they were farming in Orr and doing the Plinx chain, and that sort of stuff.

There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer because there isn’t a clear answer. Some people share Vayne’s thoughts/experience on the matter, but there’s no official confirmation one way or the other.

If you have friends or a guild, it should be sort of easy to test. Find a really out fo the way event, away from crowds off hours. Try to do the event only hitting one guy 2 or 3 times, see what result you get.

Then do the same thing with a group with them doing the event and just hit a guy 2 or 3 times at the end and see if the result is different.

Make it the same event, and just wait for it to respawn.

My experience is similar to Vayne’s in that if I don’t party up in an event like Modniir Shaman, I very rarely get champ bags from any of the three warbeasts or from the shaman, only the 1/day big box at the end; conversely if I do party up I am guaranteed champ bags from two of the warbeasts (rarely the third one, because the zerg tends to split up between the remaining two and by the time I’m done with one the third is almost dead/already dead) and one from the shaman.

I found this to be true across all characters (one of every class, all at level 80 and in exotic gear), even with condi-heavy builds that had their DPS lowered because of how conditions work (or rather how they don’t) in zergs.

That being said I never needed to party up to get gold credit for doing the event, which is confusing because you’d think if I did enough to get gold credit I should have done enough to get a drop.

This might be a bit of a stretch, but…

Could it have something to do with boon sharing?

Boons/conditions/AoE can only hit up to 5 targets at a time, right? And if you are in a party, and your party is standing in a huge zerg, doesn’t the game prioritize party members for boon sharing? So if you are in a party, you should theoretically get more boons than if you are solo in the zerg, so then theoretically you are doing more dps. And hasn’t it been shown that you have to contribute a certain % of damage to get the “tag” for a boss?

Again, I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but maybe being in a party → more boons → more dps → more likely to get a “tag”

Dietere.3476:

This might be a bit of a stretch, but…

Could it have something to do with boon sharing?

Boons/conditions/AoE can only hit up to 5 targets at a time, right? And if you are in a party, and your party is standing in a huge zerg, doesn’t the game prioritize party members for boon sharing? So if you are in a party, you should theoretically get more boons than if you are solo in the zerg, so then theoretically you are doing more dps. And hasn’t it been shown that you have to contribute a certain % of damage to get the “tag” for a boss?

Again, I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but maybe being in a party -> more boons -> more dps -> more likely to get a “tag”

Don’t think so, because sometimes I’m running up to an event and I get credit, even though I’ve only hit a couple of time ranged with a ranger bow or mesmer great sword. I’m no where near close enough to get the boons at that point.

To be in party, well you have better track of your party members.

Tho I think that applying boons doesn’t prioritize party members over nearby allied player/NPC.
When thinking about it, it really should prioritize party members over nearest player/NPC…

For contribution-wise, it should give you credit according to your party contribution.

Also that tagging once or twice, well, IF the event is a big one which requires cooperation, you’re just a leech and a bad player.
Please note the IF!

On other hand, if you try to play “dedicated healer”, you will not be given credits if you just try to heal allies and hit the mob just once or twice, for many reasons, like how ANet designed the system and that there’s no “Holy trinity”, playing as one of the “Holy trinity” will just result “holes” in your contribution.

I dunno about it, but there might be modifiers that are increased by applying conditions, inflicting CC, healing and applying boons, but they multiply your damage rated contribution.
Deal almost no damage at all, less the multiplier increases it.

Would make sense for CC and SUPPORT builds tho, who deal less dmg than DPS built player.

But this is just speculations from me.

Tom.6478:

On a side note and a suggestion. I think it would be better that groups get better drops. It promotes what Anet wants….group participation.

Wasnt one of the selling points that they raved about that you did NOT have to be in a group, you could just drop in and out to participate or is this another thing they have gone back on ?

( like the awesome trait system)

As has been said above, my experience over the past two years has shown that I generally am guaranteed corpse loot if I’m in a party. I get the corpse loot about 50% of the time if I’m on my necro or warrior solo. You’ll also get the daily reward chest and the boss chest with or without a party.

However, there’s really no point in being in a party for certain world events. Shatterer, SB, FE (after the golem escort), Baby Jungle Wurm, and Golem (maybe more, but I’m drawing a blank on the rest of the events) don’t drop any loot from their corpses. So, you don’t need a party really for those. Claw of Jormag also doesn’t drop loot, but the champs in phase 2 DO drop loot; so, being in a group there is really up to you. Svanir Shaman, Taidha Covington, Megadestroyer, and Modniir (for example) do drop loot directly; so if you want champ bags, partying up for those is good.