Groups Must Stay Together, a rant

[Stinko]

Can´t agree more with Ottar....

I don´t know how many times I´ve been running from MPKE to DC and when arriving to DC we get a groupmessage saying someone lost speed at MMGE......

1 or 2 times, even 10 times is bearable, but around 50 you start to wonder what´s happening... It ain´t hard to write "wait"

 

[Danya]

Or the classic "where are you" 5 mins later when they come back from AFK having not stuck to anyone while afk GRRRR.

On follow vs stick, at minstrel/skald speed jup, lagging off speed is a big problem, you loose a lot less people with follow than stick. Aggro isn't normally as much of a problem as people loosing stick.

 

[stu]

I'm no RvR pro, so if there's a really obvious reason why this wouldn't work then feel free to ignore it, but the solution to this problem seems fairly simple to me...

don't have the skald as pointman.

The group still runs at the same speed regardless of who is leading or where the skald is in the pack. But if he's in the middle, by definition it makes it easier for everyone else in the group to stay near him. If (let's say) you make a Warrior pointman, and he runs off without checking, then he'll soon know about it - and it will take considerably less time for the skald and his remaining buddies to catch up. If someone starts to lag behind the new pointman, they've got a bigger margin of error and a longer time in which to shout "wait", because they're closer to the skald in the first place.

In fact if you think about it, it's obvious. Basic squad-based military tactics - the pointman is there as a pathfinder, NOT to control the movement speed of the squad - that's the squad leader's job, and he sits in the middle. For the obvious reason that if the group starts to fragment, he's in the best position to sort it out.

It also has the added benefit of training people to move quickly, without punishing them as much whilst they're going through the learning experience. It's frustrating when an experienced player is held up by an inexperienced one in any situation, but what do you want the end result to be - a well trained, experienced realm-mate to help you out in the future, or a pissed off player who quits because no-one will give him the time of day to help him get to that level? Remember we were all newbies once.

 

[Ottar]

> don't have the skald as pointman.

Bingo. Give the man a cigar. Skalds make second worse bloody pointrunners in the realm right after kobold stealthers.

Best pointrunners are healers.

> if he's in the middle

Easiest to run in the middle but there is a better solution yet. Skalds should run tail - stick to the man running last in line. A bit tricky to get that stick but most times its doable. If that formation holds, noone loses speed for more than a fraction of a second.

Ottar