Q:
Some questions from new players
1: A party consists of 2-5 people, and anyone can start one by inviting another player. You can type in a character name in the party section of the UI (along the left side of the screen), or right click on a character’s name (in the guild panel or friends list as well as in person). If the player is online but on an alt, the alt will automatically get invited instead.
Squads can only be created by someone who has purchased a commander tag. I’m not sure what the max size is (50?). You’ll mainly see them in WvW (tag makes it easy to log on and see what your server’s doing) and massive PvE events that require getting basically the entire map to cooperate. They are also used in raids, endgame instances for ten players. You can join the squad of a player with a tag up by right clicking on their name, or typing /squadjoin [playername] in the chat box.
A group could mean either a squad or a party, but usually means a party. The LFG tab only works for parties atm, not squads.
2: There may be a better way to do this, but you can go to the options panel and set a convenient key for ‘stow weapon.’ That should cancel any skill.
3: I’m not entirely sure — I’ve been told being in a party makes it easier to tag the boss, but I’m usually solo and do just fine. If you are fighting the bosses Tequatl or Triple Trouble, and you see tags, join a squad (especially for TT!). The commander is a great person to ask if you have questions about the fight, and having all players in a squad makes it easy to see how many people you have and where they are. The same is true for HoT meta events if/when you’re there.
We’re going to devote our energies to sports, gardening, all the cultural pursuits;
in fact, we’re going to put the goons to sleep.
Meanwhile – we dig.
in fact, we’re going to put the goons to sleep.
Meanwhile – we dig.
Hi everybody, my wife and I are picking up this game again after playing a little bit years ago. I have a few minor questions I’m hoping people can answer for us, in no particular order.
1) What’s the difference between a party, squad, and group?
2) How do you stop your auto attack in the middle of a fight if you want to stop hitting the mob?
3) What is the advantage (if any) to being in a party/squad/group when fighting a world boss?
I’m sure we’ll think of more as we go, but these are the three that come to mind this morning.
Regarding #2: If I want to disengage from a fight, I will dodge out, turn my back to the enemies, and run directly away. This is the surest way I know to immediately stop your auto attack.
You can also select a target that is out of range, using TAB or by left-clicking.
There is no real benefit to you when joining a Squad; however the commander benefits because he/she knows exactly what resources they have so by all means join the commander’s squad if you’re going to be playing with them for any length of time. Especially important in WvW.
I have a sword, a dagger, and an estimated life span of 2.47 seconds.
Expanding on the ‘stop attacking’ thing, the truly best ways are to bind a key to stowing your weapon or deselecting all targets. Most people deselect by clicking the ground or hitting escape. Another option is to turn off autoattack for complete control of your character.
All those methods are critically important for PvP/WvW and not that important for PvE, but it’s good to know how to do it.
Another reason people join parties when doing world bosses and other big PvE events is so that if they disconnect from the game they can get back into the same copy of the map, instead of ending up in one where the event is already over or didn’t start.
This may not be an issue for you as it doesn’t affect everyone, but some people find they disconnect nearly every time they’re on a busy map so it’s an important precaution for them.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”